Financial Literacy Could Become Required High School Course

Saturday, April 22nd, 2023 -- 8:17 AM

Financial literacy could become a required course for Wisconsin high school students under a revised state Assembly bill. 

Wisconsin Public Radio reports that last year, Wisconsin's GOP floated a plan to require high school students to complete a full credit of financial literacy in order to receive their diploma. It would have gone into effect for the 2022-23 school year. But the tight timeline and cost to school districts to implement the classes caused the measure to fail. The revised bill would shorten the requirement to a half credit and would not begin until the 2028 school year. On Thursday, the Assembly Committee on Education heard three hours of testimony from students, teachers and non-profits supporting the idea. Chase Yells, a junior at West De Pere High School, called his personal finance course the most important class he will ever take. "We as students learn how to budget, so we know how to save, spend and invest," Yells said. "We know the difference between a Roth IRA and a traditional IRA and how that can make a huge impact. Thousands of others, including many at my school who do not take the elective course, do not get the opportunity to learn personal finance and consequently will likely learn from costly mistakes." Patrick Kubeny, a long-time business education teacher in the School District of Rhinelander, asked the Assembly committee to give young people a "fighting chance" to have a successful future by giving them an opportunity to learn about financial skills. 

"They have time to form good financial habits. They don't have to learn the hard lessons, like many of us and our parents did," Kubeny said. "Mandating this will not guarantee that every student will make sound decisions, but it does guarantee that they'll have an opportunity to do so." Even with cutting the requirement to a half credit, the mandate would still come at a cost to school districts, many that are already struggling financially. A fiscal estimate from the state Department of Public Instruction found an indeterminate amount of costs would be incurred from increasing staffing to teach the courses, developing course curriculum and verifying credit completion for graduation. Gov. Tony Evers' proposed 2023-25 state budget includes $2.64 billion in funding for K-12 schools, a more than 15 percent increase over the last K-12 state budget. That funding includes $5 million over two years in grants for school districts and independent charter schools to implement or expand personal financial literacy curriculum and programing. 

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