Vermont High Schools Get a D In Teaching Personal Finance

BURLINGTON, VT (12/12/2017) High schools in the state of Vermont earned a D Tuesday (12/12) for teaching personal finance. The grade was in "Is Your State Making the Grade? The 2017 Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools."

The report card, prepared by Champlain College's Center for Financial Literacy, grades each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia on how well their high schools teach personal finance. The 2017 report card is the third done by the center, with previous reports cards in 2015 and 2013.

Vermont joins Louisiana, Montana and Wyoming in receiving a D grade. Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia earned an A grade, and Utah was the only state to receive an A+.

John Pelletier, director of the Champlain College center, says that for the past 17 years in Vermont benchmark education standards have required school districts to teach modest levels of personal finance to students. These old educational standards are in the process of being replaced and/or eliminated by the board of education. The center's research indicates that 14 high schools in Vermont require students to take a course with personal finance topics in order to graduate and about half of the high schools currently offer a personal finance elective course. It appears that at about a third of high schools in Vermont do not offer students any substantive personal finance educational opportunities.

"In my home state, local school districts may offer a personal finance course, but there is very little emphasis at the state level," Pelletier says. He notes that this past August, the state board of education asked the Agency of Education to research and propose national financial literacy standards.

"If more robust national standards are approved by the board of education and continue to be required education in each high school, then Vermont could materially improve its grade to a C," he says, "but if they are these new standards are merely voluntary in nature, I'm afraid its grade will decline to an F," Pelletier notes that a final decision on personal finance education standards is likely to be made by the board at their January, February or March 2018 meeting.

Pelletier says that many states like Vermont have a lot of work to do. He also notes that research, from Next Gen Personal Finance, indicates that students from wealthy communities are much more likely to have access to personal finance education in high school than students in poor communities. "The poor should have equal access to personal finance education in high school, it shouldn't be for just the rich," he says. "But access is only possible if a state policy requires it."

The original Champlain 2013 and 2015 report cards generated widespread media attention, but more importantly, discussion among state legislatures, citizens and organizations committed to improving financial literacy in America.

"We are pleased with incremental improvements in many states, but more states with low or failing grades like Vermont have to do better," Pelletier says. "High school graduates are about to step into the world of work, military service or college, and they need to have the financial skills to navigate a complex world. We hope this report card will spur even more improvement across the country."

Pelletier points to studies that show financial literacy is linked to positive outcomes like wealth accumulation, stock market participation, retirement planning, and avoiding high-cost alternative financial services like payday lending and auto title loans.

In addition to compiling data from various sources, Champlain's center conducted in-depth research on each state's policies regarding the teaching of high school personal finance. The center reviewed state laws and regulations, graduation requirements, educational standards and assessment policies, and clarified questions in discussions with state education policy experts.

For more details on Vermont and other states, see the full report.

Champlain College's Center for Financial Literacy, a partnership among several financial institutions, non-profit entities and governmental agencies, promotes and develops financial literacy skills in K-12 students, college students, teachers (K-12 and college) and adults. The Center is an advocate for financial education opportunities at the local, state and national level. The Center has launched a variety of programs aimed at increasing the personal finance sophistication of Americans.

Founded in 1878, Champlain College is one of the few colleges in America that require personal finance education for graduation. A small private college overlooking Lake Champlain and Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal and Dublin, Champlain's career-driven approach to higher education prepares students for professional life from their very first semester. Recognized by U.S. News & World Report as an innovative school, it is listed among The Princeton Review's "The Best 382 Colleges" in 2018 and is featured in the 2018 Fiske Guide to Colleges as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.

Contacts:

• John Pelletier, Director of the Center for Financial Literacy, Office: 802-860-2744, Cell: 617-548-6102, jpelletier@champlain.edu

Posted Tuesday December 12, 2017 at 01:19 pm by Champlain College
Last Updated Tuesday December 12, 2017 at 01:20 pm