Pennsylvania students might graduate high school without being taught how to balance a checkbook, what a credit score is, or how to establish savings.
That is according to a study conducted by Vermont's Champlain College, which tested the finance education requirements of all 50 states. Pennsylvania tied with ten other states for last place.
According to the study, an F rating represents that a state has little to no requirements for personal finance in high school; Pennsylvania’s standardized mathematics assessments do not include sections testing economic literacy.
John Pelletier, Champlain College’s director of financial literacy and author of the study, said now more than ever, these types of courses are important to students going into the working world.
“Today young people need that knowledge for so many different reasons," he said. "I think the financial world today is so much more complex than it was in previous generations.”
Personal finance has been a part of American secondary education for some time, with monetary problem-solving skills being the backbone of a mathematics education as early as the late 1800s, according to Pelletier. It has morphed over time, from home economics to units embedded in other courses.
“If you go through one of these old textbooks you’ll see that there was a time when high school math equated to math being taught through life-skills and examples,” says Pelletier.
The imbalance in financial education for high school students typically comes down to the curriculum decisions made by individual schools.
“The big differentiating factor is local control. The greater the level of local control, right down to graduation requirements, the less likely there is to be any sort of requirement to teach personal finance in that state,” Pelletier says.
Gateway High School in Monroeville is one of the schools making efforts to teach basic personal finance concepts to students. Adult Roles, a course taught in the consumer science department, is required for graduation. Personal Finance and Finance and the Family are offered as electives in the business department as well.
Only 38 of the 500 Pennsylvania school districts have made these types of courses a part of their graduation requirements.
In 2010, the Pennsylvania legislature required the Department of Education make personal finance and economic information available on its website for educators and residents to use.
But do these classes actually help students in their early adult years? A study done by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority says yes.
That study found that students who took required personal finance courses were less likely to be late on credit payments. As time went on and these required courses became more established, students who participated were less likely to fall behind on credit card payment as well.
