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.

Personal Finance education captured lots of attention and activity in state legislatures across the country in 2021. To keep you abreast of these developments, we launched NGPF's FinEd BillTracker which has now been updated as of 12/31/21.

Here's the final tally for what was accomplished in 2021: 

• 26 states + DC introduced bills focused on financial education in public schools
• 3 states had bills signed by their governors that guarantee that all high school students will complete a one semester personal finance course: Nebraska, Rhode Island and Ohio
  • They join 7 other states that have made a similar commitment: Utah, Missouri, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Mississippi
• 5 states enacted legislation that should have a positive impact on increasing access to financial education
  • Arkansas: Established the Arkansas Financial Education Commission whose duties include managing and implementing financial literacy educational plans and programs
  • Colorado: Passed a bill that directs the state board of education (state board) to review, during a recurring interval specified in the bill, standards relating to the knowledge and skills that a student should acquire in school to ensure that the financial literacy standards for ninth through twelfth grades...
  • Hawaii: Passed a bill that urged the Department of Education to coordinate with the Dept of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to implement a graduation requirement of at least a half credit in personal finance during the junior or senior year. The Dept of Education has begun the process by soliciting feedback from stakeholders. 
  • Nevada: Revised the academic subjects that constitute social studies, including civics, financial literacy and multicultural education 
  • Texas: Provides choice in Texas with students able to select a half credit economics course or personal financial literacy and economics course which is ⅔ of instruction time allocated to personal finance and ⅓ to economics. 

We look forward to keeping you updated on legislative activity in 2022...Only 8 years remaining for all of us to accomplish Mission 2030, when all students will cross the high school graduation stage with the financial skills they need to thrive in the future. Thank you for your continued advocacy and commitment to increasing access to financial education! 

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Looking for tools to advocate in your school community? Be sure to check out NGPF's step-by-step process to increase access to financial education. 

About the Authors

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.

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Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.

More posts by Christian