Millions of K–12 students start the 2026–2027 academic year expecting to complete a personal finance course before high school graduation.
Delaware’s and Hawaii’s incoming freshmen are now required to meet the requirement before receiving diplomas in 2030. California and Colorado previously passed a mandate for the class of 2031, according to those states’ respective legislation.
All told, 30 states are phasing in the personal finance course requirement if they haven’t already done so, and nine states require the topic to be integrated into other courses, Next Gen Personal Finance organization, the Council for Economic Education, and the National Endowment for Financial Education report on their websites.
“We’re only in the second inning of this,” Tim Ranzetta, Next Gen co-founder, told The Epoch Times. “By 2031, 76 percent of kids will have to take that class.”
“Every parent says, ‘It’s a class I wish I had.’ It’s just a growing realization that high schools need to prepare students for real life.”
The instructional push comes at a time when many young people can’t afford to buy their first home and credit card debt among Americans is skyrocketing. For high schoolers, it also coincides with their first job and the prospects of buying a car and going to college.
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It’s also important for young people, when they look at their first paycheck, to understand taxes and how that money is spent at the local, state, and federal levels—and how their own spending has long-term implications, Ranzetta said.
“You don’t come out of the womb understanding how credit scores work,” he said.
In the Council for Economic Education’s 2026 Survey of the States report, Delaware state Rep. Jeff Hilovsky said the required half-credit course that students can complete in one semester will yield every participant a “$116,000 lifetime benefit.”
“The knowledge acquired in the classroom doesn’t stay there. Students often share their new financial acumen with their parents, leading to improved financial stability for entire households,” Hilovksy wrote. “This ripple effect helps families create structured budgets, reduce unnecessary debt, and navigate major financial decisions.”
The council identified 11 states that neither require a personal finance course nor integrate the topic into other subjects, including Washington, Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts. The District of Columbia also falls in this category.
The Council for Economic Education also reported that only 22 states still require high school students to complete a traditional economics course, and some states made that class mandatory in order to implement the personal finance requirement. Leslie Finnan, a senior director with the council, says both classes are necessary.
“Personal finance is learning how an individual or household manages money and includes how to budget, save and invest,” she told The Epoch Times.
“Economics is how money works in the world as a larger system and includes concepts like inflation, the stock market, and interest rates. Just like diet and exercise—to live a healthy life, you need both. In the same way, to understand the financial system, students need both personal finance and economics. The two are interconnected.”
