High School Economics and Personal Finance Courses

A number of states have decided that it is important for high school students to have classes in economics, personal finance, or both. The Council for Economic Education conducts a review of state regulations in this direction every two years. Here are some recent results States Review (May 2022).

Here is a sample high school economics coursework. It is easiest to read this graph from top to bottom. In every state and in Washington, D.C., economics was taught broadly in school standards. However, five states do not require implementation of the standards. Standards can often be met by including some economic disciplines in the social science class, such as public administration or history. Half of the states require a separate economics course to be offered in high school, while 21 states require all students to take it. Nine states have standardized test scores.

Here is a parallel figure for a high school personal finance course. In this case, 47 states include some personal finance in their standards, and 40 require school districts to implement this standard. As you can see from the figure, 27 states require high schools to offer a personal finance course, but only nine require students to take such a course, and another 14 require that a personal finance course be integrated into another course. Four states have standardized testing of personal finance concepts.

Given that I’m the managing editor of an academic journal in economics, I suppose I should be advocating for further growth in the upper classes in economics and personal finance, but I admit I’m a little skeptical of both. The real problem is to think about what kind of economics course should be required for each student, and what should be offered as an option to college students. Many high school economics teachers do not have a strong economic background of their own, but instead focus on public administration or history while graduating. Such teachers may question the difference between teaching the structure of economic reasoning and economics-related statements about how history and government work.

Similarly, the personal finance lesson for 17 year olds also faces some challenges. Years ago, in my high school economics class, we learned several times how to fill out a one-page 1040EZ form, which came in handy when I needed to file a tax return for Arby’s income and newspaper shipping route. But it didn’t go deeper. We certainly haven’t touched on practical matters, such as thinking about using a credit card, or choosing car or health insurance deductibles and co-pays, or thinking about college or car loans, or short-term savings. or long term goals. retirement period. When I think back to myself and my classmates in high school, I’m not sure if those subjects meant much to us either.

There is also the main problem that high school has a limited number of courses, so adding economics and/or personal finance requirements is sure to take a chunk out of something else. One option is to find a way to combine the two classes. I suspect that it would be entirely possible to create a reasonably necessary single course for all high school students, combining elements of personal finance and economics. But such a course, subject to time constraints, would contain less economics than a pure economics course and less personal finance than a purely personal finance course, and thus would likely irritate current educators and proponents of these courses.

So yes, I would like more high school graduates to get a basic understanding of economics and personal finance. But I am well aware that it is relatively easy to write state-level requirements, but figuring out how it works in real classes is not so easy.