Students should be required to learn the fundamentals of personal finances to graduate from Maryland’s public schools, according to a state task force.
With the national economy collapsing and many citizens losing their homes because they took on mortgages they could not afford, the Task Force to Study How to Improve Financial Literacy in the State wants students to understand basic financial concepts — such as how to manage a checking account and buy a house — before graduating.
“We view it as a basic life skill,” said Del. Dana Stein, D-Baltimore County, a co-chairman of the task force. “Given the current economic downturn, the problems in the mortgage market, we feel it is especially important that all students graduate with some financial literacy.”
Many students fall into credit card debt when they enter college. According to a 2008 survey from the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 80 percent of students reported receiving mail from credit card companies and 20 percent said they got an average of four phone calls a month from the companies.
But in Maryland, less than half — 40 percent — of high school students learn about personal finance through a required class or an elective course, said Allen Cox, managing director of the Maryland Coalition for Financial Literacy, a nonprofit organization affiliated with Towson University.
“My question is, what happens to the other 60 percent?” he asked.
The task force, which was created last July and includes state lawmakers and officials with backgrounds in education or business, will meet with the Maryland school board today to make its recommendations.
Districts would be able to meet the requirement by creating new classes or including the financial literacy curriculum in other courses, Stein said.
State education department officials declined to comment until the task force makes it recommendations to the board.
Mitchell Generette, a 17-year-old senior at Renaissance Academy High School and the student representative on the Baltimore City school board, said his school began offering a personal finance class this semester, and he learned about managing his finances from his father.
“I really do agree with that required knowledge of the seniors,” he said. “I think that they should have that because going into college and coming out of college and doing whatever they want to do as a career, they will have to know that.”
Beginning with this year’s seniors, students in Maryland must pass four exams in algebra, English, government and biology to earn a diploma. But Cox argued that it is just as important for students to take personal finance courses to keep them from piling up debt or getting bad credit.
“They’re going to be having a different test when they graduate,” he said, “and that’s how they’re going to cope with the decisions they have to make.”
