Personal finance education is hot right now. Thirty-six states now require students take some personal finance in order to graduate, according to the Council for Economic Education. The requirements come in different flavors. Some states have a standalone, semesterlong course dedicated to personal finance, while others work lessons into other classes, like social studies. Even the states that have no mandates tend to have personal finance standards that schools can follow if they want to teach the subject.
There are proven benefits to taking personal finance classes. Students who take them tend to get better deals on their student loans and have higher credit scores. There are also areas that they don’t seem to have much impact on — like closing the wealth gap and the amount of money kids eventually make. Although there are lessons that are universally taught — how to budget, for example — others are very specific, focused on preparing students for the economic realities they’ll face in their state.
In this special, we visit classrooms in Oklahoma, Virginia and Tennessee to get a sense of what personal finance education looks like across the country. We also go to a casino and a metalworking company, both of which influence what personal finance education close to them looks like. And we talk about the people involved in creating curricula — ranging from banks and education companies to personal finance stars — as well as the challenges to training teachers in the subject.
“Inside the Movement to Teach Kids About Money” was a station special hosted by Nancy Marshall-Genzer, with reporting from Stephanie Hughes. This special was sponsored by Tim Ranzetta and financial education nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance. Minju Park produced this special. Editing by Caitlin Esch. Scoring and mixing by Jayk Cherry.
| Thanks to our sponsor!The Ranzetta Family Charitable Fund and Next Gen Personal Finance, supports Marketplace’s work to make younger audiences smarter about the economy. Next Gen Personal Finance is a non-profit that believes all students benefit from having a financial education before they cross the stage at high school graduation.
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