High School Graduation and Financial Literacy

Finally, your big day has come. A moment in almost everyone’s life where you can celebrate your achievement, High school graduation. You’ve been looking forward to this moment since you were a freshman and now it’s here. You are super excited to take your next step in life and see what the world has for you. You feel prepared for college, you’ve learned everything there is to know about chemistry and calculus. As you are preparing to walk across the stage, you think about how much college is going to cost you and you have no clue how you’re going to be able to afford it. Your parents can’t help you because they are struggling out of their own debt due to medical bills. You realize after high school, you’re financially abandoned with no plan of how you’re going to repay your loan debt after college or even if you chose the right loans that won’t screw you over later. You consider waiting to go to college for a few years so you can have a little more money to help pay for the expenses. Though then you’d have to pay for other bills like rent and groceries. You never learned how to budget your expenses or file your taxes. How are you expected to do something you were never taught how to do?

Before getting into the argument I should also explain what Financial literacy is. Financial literacy, in my context, means the basic knowledge of personal finance and know how to make smart financial decisions. Some areas of study would consist of investing, paying for college, retirement planning, tax planning, and budgeting.

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You should know that a high percentage of Americans are financially struggling. In fact, there’s an article written by Liz Frazier, titled “5 Reasons Personal Finance Should Be Taught In School” and published by Forbes Media. Frazier states that “Nearly half of Americans don’t have enough cash available to cover a $400 emergency” (par. 10). Many Americans are not living financially stable lives, due to the increase in costs of college and lack of learning about loans and paying them off. In fact, Frazier states that “millennials are starting their careers with a combined $1.52 trillion in debt” (par. 11). The younger generations are coming into the workforce with less financial knowledge and more debt than any other generation before them. With all this considered, although the Department of Education may not think it's important, I believe that the Department of Education should require high school students to take a financial literacy course because it teaches responsibility, grants an equal chance at financial success, and it can help the economy.

One reason why the department of education should require high school students to take a financial literacy class is that it teaches responsibility. In fact, Frazier states, “Budgeting teaches awareness and responsibility. If someone has a budget that they actively manage, it forces them to look at their spending. They are aware of how much they have available, and this leads to making better spending decisions.” (par. 16). For example, creating and following a budget will create healthy habits for students to pick up. Almost like having a dog and taking care of it gives children a responsibility that they must deal with frequently. Personally, I know when my parents got me and my brothers a dog, I had a lot more chores to do like walking it, feeding it, cleaning it, and cleaning up after it. These chores didn’t directly help me learn any skills, but it did give me something to be held accountable for which lead me to hold myself accountable for my actions thus teaching me how to be responsible. Considering this, teaching responsibility is important because responsibility is an important virtue in learning. If more students can learn more efficiently, then they will be better prepared for graduation and overall success. This success will reflect upon the department of education through improved test scores and higher graduation rates. Another result of teaching students responsibility is that it creates an overall healthier environment of learning. Responsible students care too much about getting good grades and preparing for college to act insubordinately. Therefore, this is just one reason why the department of education should require high school students to take a financial literacy class.

In addition to responsibility, the Department of Education should make high school students learn financial literacy because it also grants all students an equal chance at financial success. There is a huge problem with financial inequality in this country. In fact, an article written by Stephan Schwartz, titled “Life, Death, and Financial Inequality” and published in Explore. The article states that “One in five U.S. households has zero or negative net worth. ‘Underwater households’ make up an even higher share of households of color. More than 30 percent of black households and 27 percent of Latino households have zero or negative net worth to fall back on” (Schwartz 9). In support, some people are born with less financial guidance and are given fewer opportunities to learn how to be financially responsible. For example, my parents didn’t directly sit me down and show me how to do taxes, but they did lead by example in the sense of being smart with their money and it showed me that if I saved when I was younger, I wouldn’t suffer as much later. A more extreme example could be that some kids are born into wealth and their parents are paying for their college and so they won’t have to worry about loans when graduating from college. Most parents can’t afford to pay for their child’s entire college education, so the student will have to deal with paying off loans and they might not have a clue what to do. As well, there are some students who are academically successful but financially get no support due to growing up in poverty. For example, Alex Yue Feng Zhu, Christina Wai Mui, and Kee Lee Chou are authors of an article titled “Improving Financial Literacy in Secondary School Students: An Randomized Experiment,” which was published in Youth and Society. Within the article, it states that “Family income is positively associated with financial literacy in young people, and youth financial literacy is, in turn, positively correlated to the amount of wealth they are able to accumulate in adulthood” (Zhu et. al. 3). Considering this, it is important to give these students an equal chance to financial success because high school is meant to provide each student an equal chance at success after graduation so equally preparing each student is the department of education’s obligation. Therefore, this is another reason why the department of education should require high school students to learn financial literacy.

Furthermore, another reason why the Department of Education should require high school students to learn financial literacy is that it could later help the economy. Financially smart adults tend to be more successful in their career decisions, meaning there will most likely be more opportunities for better jobs and a better economy. Employers want to make sure that you have an established life before they hire someone, financials are one of the biggest indicators of a responsible life. Things like your credit score can be a deciding factor of hiring you or not. So being financially responsible can give you an edge when applying for a job. Now think, if everyone was more financially responsible, more people would have more opportunities for jobs. Frazier says it simply, “More jobs, more money, and less debt are good for the economy as a whole” (par. 18). Having a healthy economy can be essential for education. If the economy isn’t healthy, the education system will pay for it. Budget cuts in the education system can lead to lower education quality. For example, the latest recession we had in America led to budget cuts for education. In fact, an article written by Daarel Burnette II, titled “Recession’s Budget Cuts Hurt Test Scores,” and published in Education Week. Burnette states “Researchers studied test scores of students in grades 3-8 in more than 2,500 counties and found that districts with the biggest budget cuts from 2007 to 2010 experienced a loss of approximately 25 percent of the expected annual academic gains compared with districts least affected by the recession” (6). The economy clearly reflects the success of education so its vital that the economy is healthy in America if we want our education to be proficient. In the end, this is the final reason why the department of education should require high school students to learn financial literacy.

The Department of Education and some educators may argue that adding another required course such as financial literacy is a bad idea because there are already too many general education classes already. As a former high school student, I understand where they are coming from. There are many courses I had to take in high school and some of them already seemed completely useless. In fact, David Ferrero wrote an article titled “Are Schools Trying to Teach Too Much?” published by Editorial Projects in Education. Ferrero states that “Educators can’t keep stuffing new content into current curricula willy-nilly without thoughtful deliberation over what knowledge and skills to prioritize” (par. 4). Next Ferrero goes on to say, “In order for teachers to integrate new knowledge and skills thoughtfully and coherently, we have to be a rethink and reduce the current course loads schools require” (par. 5). So clearly educators feel that students don’t have time in their schedule to take another required class. However, the Department of Education should consider that if there’s too much to learn in too little time then why are so many high school students graduating early? In support, there’s an article titled “Early High School Graduation Programs Gain Traction,” written by Kimberley Railey and published by USA Today. In the article, Railey states “Across the nation, fewer than 3% of students graduate high school early” (par. 8). Railey then goes on to say, “now early high school graduation programs are getting a boost at the local level” (par. 9). This is consequential to the fact that maybe high school might not be as rigorous as it needs to be. So why not one more required class?

Now, you’re back at graduation. You’re walking across that stage. You’re questioning if college really prepared you for life the way it should. Did you learn how to take out a loan? Or how to manage your money efficiently? Or even teach you how to pay your taxes? You could be arrested for tax evasion, something you most likely never properly learned about. But hey… at least you know the quadratic formula!

Works Cited

1. Burnette II, Daarel. “Recession’s Budget Cuts Hurt Test Scores.” Education Week, vol. 39, no. 7, October 2019. pp. 6. EBSCOhost. search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=138932734&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 9 November 2019.
2. Ferrero, David J. “Are Schools Trying to Teach Too Much?” Education Week, Editorial Projects in Education, 20 Feb. 2019, www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2018/07/20/are-schools-trying-to-teach-too-much.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mrss. Accessed 9 November 2019.
3. Frazier, Liz. “5 Reasons Personal Finance Should Be Taught In School.” Forbes Media, 29 August 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizfrazierpeck/2019/08/29/5-reasons-personal-finance-should-be-taught-in-school/#3ddb27d65178. Accessed 24 October 2019.
4. Railey, Kimberly. “Early High School Graduation Programs Gain Traction.” USA Today, 28 July 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/27/early-high-school-graduation/2518817/. Accessed 9 November 2019.
5. Schwartz, Stephan. “Life, Death, and Financial Inequality.” Explore,
6. vol. 15, no. 1, February 2019. pp. 9-12. Science Direct. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2018.10.010. Accessed 9 November 2019.
7. Yue Feng Zhu, Alex, Christina Wai Mui, Kee Lee Chou. “Improving Financial Literacy in Secondary School Students: An Randomized Experiment.” Youth & Society, 29 May 2019. pp. 1-24. Sage Journals. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0044118X19851311. Accessed 24 October 2019.