Income Gap in K-12 Financial Education Remains Despite Progress: Study

High schools across the U.S. have made notable progress in offering students instruction about economics and personal finance, the Council for Economic Education reported Wednesday.

Every two years, CEE analyzes data from the 50 states and District of Columbia on the state of K-12 economic and personal finance education.

The latest survey found, however, that despite the advances over two years, K-12 students in half the states and many lower-income children were still not assured adequate access to education on personal finance.

“After many years of little change, the 2020 Survey of the States shows real progress and a notable increase in the number of states with graduation requirements in both economics and personal finance,” CEE president and chief executive Nan Morrison said in a statement.

“We’re heartened that progress is happening, but there’s still a long way to go to ensure equal access to these essential life skills, with students from lower-income households dramatically trailing their more affluent counterparts.”

Advances and Retreats

The survey results showed that 21 states now require high school students to take a course in personal finance, a net increase of four states.

Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and South Carolina added requirements since the 2018 survey, while Florida dropped its requirement.

In addition, 25 states currently require high school students to take a course in economics, with Hawaii, Ohio and Wyoming having joined the list of states since 2018.

On a less positive note, the survey found that although all states have some standards for schools teaching economics, the District of Columbia and five states do not include personal finance in their K-12 curriculum standards: Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.