UPDATE: the 2023 Financial Education Bill Tracker from Next Gen Personal Finance provides daily updates on which state legislatures have introduced financial education bills for grades K-12 throughout 2023.

Which state is the 12th to guarantee a personal finance course to high schoolers? 

It's Iowa! While compiling data for the NGPF 2022 State of Financial Education report, we found that 90%+ of Iowa high school students are now guaranteed to take a personal finance course prior to crossing that graduation stage (that's up from 67.5% in last year's report). While schools were given multiple options based on guidance from the Iowa Dept. of Education, it's clear based on an analysis of course catalogs that almost all Iowa high schools are satisfying this guarantee with a personal finance course. Look for more details on this and 49 other states in NGPF's 2022 State of Financial Education to be released on April 21st with a panel discussion on April 26th. 

Here's the latest NGPF FinEd Bill Tracker. Highlights/updates include:

• Summary: 60 bills in 26 states have been introduced (as of 3/30/22); 46 bills still alive in 20 states
• Maryland HB985 was significantly weakened via an amendment that took the bill from a guarantee that every student would complete a personal finance course prior to graduation to a guarantee that every student would have access to a personal finance course ("MAKE THE COURSE AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS IN EVERY PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY")
• Minnesota's Senate introduced SF4384, which is the companion to House bill HF4207, and has the following details: "students beginning 9th grade in the 2023-2024 school year and later must successfully complete a personal finance course for credit during their senior year of high school." Next stop: Senate Education Finance and Policy committee. 
• In Tennessee, bills (HB2294 and SB2174) requiring a personal finance course for middle schoolers continues to progress through the House and Senate in the state. New Jersey passed a similar middle school requirement in 2019.
• New Hampshire's legislature introduced HB1263 with the following provision: "The school board shall ensure that personal finance literacy instruction designed to prepare students for success in making financial decisions is taught as part of the curriculum. Personal finance literacy skills may be embedded in an existing course or grade level program of studies." 

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You don't want to miss out on all of the festivities, so be sure to check out NGPF's Financial Literacy Month events. 

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You might like these resources too: 

• Question of the Day for every day of April; popular use case is during morning announcements 
• NGPF Bingo Board will engage your students as they find classmates who are saving for something special, have donate money, have cashed a check or other activity.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

More posts by Tim