New Financial Literacy Course Mandation

BY ARIEL MOORE [lead writer]

The state of Indiana is focusing on a new bill which will bring a mandatory financial literacy course to high school for students as early as 2027.

The Indiana State Board of Education would be responsible for implementing these courses for high school students. Although there are optional courses that teach students about their finances, this bill would make it mandatory to complete a basic course on financial literacy before graduation. Without it being mandatory many students go through their high school careers without taking one.

With this new bill, students will be entering the workforce with a better understanding of their finances than ever before.

“A basic understanding of finances, such as spending, saving, managing bank accounts, debt management, and loan applications would be taught,” Indiana State Representative David Hall told Indiana Daily Student. These life long skills would take students far in life.

“This sounds like such a good idea because this year, I’m taking Personal Finance and honestly, it’s helped me so much. I learned so many new things that I didn’t know before,” junior Savannah Mellon said. “I would definitely recommend it. I think it’s really good just to learn how to save money and it can really help you in the long run.”

These new changes won’t be much of a problem for the school system to adapt to because there are already a few finance classes available to students. The most difficult aspect would be accommodating the large number of students taking the course.

“I do feel that we need to really prepare our students to manage their money in the real world. On the first day of class, I typically create a list of all the different things you’re going to spend money on in your 20s,” Personal Finance teacher Alison Duncan said.

“Students realize very quickly that they are going to be spending a lot of money, on their education, on housing, on transportation, on basic life needs, and they really need to be prepared on how to make these decisions.”

Having a course that relates to students and provide the necessary information is very important.

“It’s a great class because kids liked the course because they’re learning things that relate to the real world,” Duncan said. “Students want to know how to use the goods and services at a bank, they want to know how to balance a budget. So it is a course that is very relevant.”