Personal Finance Course Requirement for Graduation

At a recent District Advisory Committee meeting, Mr. Crozier asked the parents and community members who were there, "What more can N-K Schools do to best educate our young people?"

Secretly, in my corner of the room, in my mind I was thinking, "Please someone say financial literacy or personal finance." My fingers were crossed under the table, hoping others were seeing the need that I had come to see, also.

Lo and behold, a parent spoke out in response to Mr. Crozier's question with the answer I was hoping to hear: "What about a class in personal finance?"

For a while, starting with a question from our counselor Mrs. Hansen, and filtering through students, and then some parents, I'd been hearing of a concern that our graduates were moving out into the Great Wide World without a solid sense of what it takes to manage a checkbook, apply for a loan, understand interest rates, and wisely manage their own financial well-being.

Not all students suffer from this deficit, certainly. Most of our students who own and manage their own livestock typically have a good understanding of money management. And those who began working at a young age and whose parents cause them to pay their own cell phone bills, car payments, fuel costs--those kids manage their finances pretty well, too.

But not all students have that experience (in my observation, most don't), and even the most savvy senior in high school hasn't had to apply for a home loan or project the cost of their college education.

There is much to do in order for this vision of a Personal Finance Course to become a reality: teachers need to develop the course content, I need to come up with a plan for phasing in a new requirement like this so it fits into a student's schedule well, and of course the school board needs to approve of it.

But if all of that work comes together, N-K will have again raised expectations for graduation in a way that will help our graduates no matter what they choose to do in life after high school. I would love to hear your thoughts on this; please call, write, or stop in any time to talk.