Nationally, data indicate that financial literacy is growing and states are increasingly prioritizing the issue in public education. During the 2022 session of the Maryland General Assembly, lawmakers tackled the issue and passed a bill requiring k-12 public curriculums to incorporate financial literacy.
K-12 Dive, a website that provides “journalism and insight into the most impactful news and trends shaping K-12 education,” recently published a deep dive on financial literacy education in the United States. That analysis found that:
- National access to financial education has increased slightly since 2018, when just five states required personal finance courses for all high-schoolers and 16.4% of high school graduates took such a course, according to a new report published by nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance.
- In 2022, eight states had implemented standalone personal finance courses and 22.7% of high school graduates had taken one. Four additional states — Florida, Ohio, Rhode Island and Nebraska — are currently implementing financial course requirements statewide, which will bump the states requiring some finance material to 12 and the percentage of students taking those courses to 32.5%.
- At 48.2%, more students had access in 2022 to optional personal finance courses rather than required courses. On the other hand, 4.8% of high school students had no access to financial education in 2022, the report found.
K-12 found, however, that despite the increased…
