WASHINGTON STATE – Early Thursday, Washington State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti announced plans to introduce legislation requiring financial education for high school graduation.
In a press conference, Pellicciotti explained the goal is to better prepare students and address gaps in the current curriculum.
“I have yet to meet a Washingtonian who believes that they know everything they need to know about financial education and financial literacy,”Pellicciotti said.
Washington is among a few states lacking a mandatory financial education class requirement. Currently, state law requires middle school students to have at least two weeks of financial education.
Brandi Wortmann, a math teacher at Centennial Middle School, teaches a unit on financial literacy at the end of the school year. In her class, students engage in activities like drawing jobs to understand financial concepts.
Once those jobs are selected, Wortmann explained, “Then they have to budget.”
She said that students pick up the best practices for financial success, such as the importance of managing credit.
“They quickly realize that a credit card with the high interest rate is not a good thing,” Wortmann said.
But even though budgeting is difficult, Wortmann says the students look forward to those weeks.
“They love it,” Wortmann said. “Actually, if they could do it tomorrow they would, because they wait all year.”
In Idaho, a personal finance course has already been implemented. Debbie Critchfield, the Idaho Superintendent of Public School Instruction, noted the demand for such education.
“I started hearing it from kids who wanted to have more information on personal financial management,” Critchfield said.
Although there were initial concerns about implementation, the program has been successful.
Meanwhile in Spokane, Lewis and Clark High School is the only Spokane Public Schools high school that offers a financial literacy class. The other high schools integrate financial education into existing courses.
Scott Kerwien, Chief of Student Success, highlighted student interest in financial literacy.
“They really want to know the basics of being on your own, and maybe my version of survival maps,” Kerwien said.
However, incorporating new courses is not straightforward.
“If we add a class, then we have to take away a class usually,” Kerwien explained.
The proposed legislation’s impact on existing schedules remains uncertain, but in classrooms like Wortmann’s, students are saying that personal finance assignments, are an A-plus.
