Should Financial Literacy Be Required?

• Author: Morrison, Nan J.
• Position: Debate

Surveys show that many parents are reluctant to talk to their kids about money. In the past few years, more schools have decided that it's their role to step in and fill the gap. Seventeen states now require students to take a course on personal finance before they graduate from high school.

But not everyone agrees that these courses are worth the investment. The head of a group that promotes economic education and the head of a financial research center square off about the value of financial literacy requirements.

YES Would you send athletes into a game without any practice? Hand kids a library card but not teach them to read? Give them the car keys without teaching them how to drive? Of course not. Yet we let students slide into adulthood without learning the basics of personal finance.

We know that young Americans struggle with credit card debt and student loan debt, and that many grow up in homes where it's a struggle just to make ends meet. Requiring financial education gives all young Americans the tools they need to make informed decisions that will benefit themselves, their families, and their communities.

When we treat personal finance with the respect given to other subjects-when teachers are trained, and there is a required, well-defined personal finance curriculum-financial education works. Three years after Georgia, Idaho, and Texas mandated personal finance courses, credit scores for young adults increased up to 32 points and loan delinquency rates decreased by as much as 16 percent.

And in my experience, teaching personal finance resonates with kids. One student told us, "At first, it felt like a foreign language. Now, I understand how to make more thoughtful decisions about my life. It's a new way to think." After Virginia implemented a required class, a graduating senior said, "This was by far the most practical class ever offered. It should have been required a long time ago."

Perhaps the most important reason to incorporate financial education in schools: It levels the economic playing field. Data shows that college educated men from wealthy families do just fine without personal finance in the classroom, furthering the gap for young people who were born without these advantages and who lack financial education in their schools. Access to financial education is a path to economic mobility. That is why it needs to be part of all our schools' K-12 curriculums. It's time and money well spent.

--NAN J. MORRISON President and...