Millions of high school students across the U.S. will graduate in 2022 with one important course under their belt: personal finance.
Recent momentum among states requiring personal finance education in high school means that nearly 1 in 4 students will take such a course before they graduate this year, according to Next Gen Personal Finance’s 2022 State of Financial Education report, released Thursday.
That’s a huge change from 2018, when the first report was issued and only 16.4% of high school students in the country were required to take a personal finance class. Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit, now feels that it is on track to reach its goal of giving 100% of students guaranteed access to personal finance education by 2030.
“We’ve really seen some great progress in terms of guaranteed access,” said Christian Sherrill, director of growth and advocacy at Next Gen Personal Finance.
Bills in progress
In addition to the eight states that currently guarantee all students will take a personal finance course before graduating high school – which Next Gen Personal Finance considers to be the gold standard – four additional states have passed similar legislation in the past 12 months.