Financial education: Does your state make the grade?
@Money July 11, 2013: 4:34 PM ET
A passing grade? The effort that states put into teaching high school students about personal finance.
NEW YORK (Money Magazine)
The Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College has graded all 50 states on their efforts to teach the ABCs of financial literacy to high school students.
The assessments are based primarily on published reports covering state-by-state measures, along with reviews of state legislation going back more than a decade. (For an expanded version of this report card, visit the financial literacy center's website.)
Should you find your state's grade disappointing, the center's director, John Pelletier, suggests you start by raising the issue with your local high school principal or school board. On the state level, he says, you should contact your local state representative or senator.
To help make your case, Pelletier recommends the resources available at jumpstart.org. "Given that our nation has suffered greatly in recent years from financial illiteracy," he says, "elected officials should listen closely."
State Ranking: Alabama - Hawaii
Alabama: F
- Personal-finance topics are included in the state's educational guidelines, but the state does not require that local school districts teach these topics.
- No personal-finance requirement, although personal finance may be taught at certain schools as