If you don’t follow the various assembly bills and senate bills in California, AB 2927 is likely not on your radar. AB 2927 passed in June and has major impacts on high schoolers. This bill requires all high school programs to offer a personal finance course by school year 27/28, and to require it as a component of graduation for all seniors by the 30/31 school year. I am personally very excited that this bill was passed. Many people I work with wish they had learned about personal finance much earlier in life and felt unprepared to enter the job market in their early adulthood.
I have done a lot of reading and investigating in local programs in my community. I dug through the curriculums in the local high schools as well as the community and state colleges to see what education is available. The high school education offered often competes with math courses and are often not selected because the college degree programs like to see other math courses like trigonometry, calculus, etc. I have interviewed recent high school graduates who confirmed that personal finance was rarely selected, and for the few who did take personal finance it was helpful but didn’t fully equip them for facing demands of adulthood.
Even after high school the options for personal finance were lacking. Most of the degree programs don’t include personal finance as a part of the curriculum. People may opt to take it as an elective if it works in their program, but many people choose other courses that double dip with another degree requirement. This leaves people with the option of taking a personal finance course on their own time and money. Even at the community college level this is not ideal. After registration and unit costs you could be looking at $200+ on the conservative side, as well as 4-6 months of time to go through a typical college course. This was one of the driving forces that led me to create an online course that is cost effective and time sensitive while being thorough enough to cover all the important topics I believe are key to a person’s financial success.
Fortunately I see AB 2927 as a catalyst to help set students up for success. Even if the curriculums are not fully comprehensive enough to teach students how to tackle all the challenges life can throw at them, it will at least establish the mindset of having a strong financial plan and when they need to seek out further knowledge and guidance. I look forward to seeing how the future graduating classes handle their finances and what far reaching impacts it will have. I know I will be watching student loan rates over the next decade and contrasting to the current student loan crisis we find ourselves in. I suspect loans will start to decline once students understand what consequences those loans have on their long term finances.
