All Louisiana students will soon be required to take a personal finance course before they can graduate high school.
Governor John Bel Edwards recently signed a bill that requires every student to take a course, where they’ll learn things like how to balance a checkbook, about the stock market, and more.
Students will have to complete the course in order to graduate and receive TOPS.
“Credit scores, how credit scores are occurring. Even simple things like balancing a checkbook, the stock market. You know, things that you and I may take for granted, that some of our students just have no awareness about,” said State Rep. Nicholas Muscarello (R), District 86.
According to a Yahoo report, Louisiana is now the 22nd state in the country to guarantee a personal finance course for all high school students.
“You know, everybody wants to sit here and say, Louisiana is always last. I didn’t want to be last in educating our students. So, I’m super excited for the fact that we are for once ahead of something, and ahead of the game,” said Rep. Muscarello.
The bill is now a law, and Muscarello said it will be a yearlong elective course, and local school boards will decide how it’s implemented in each district.
“When’s the last time you used calculus and algebra in your everyday life? This is something that I think is going to make our students better prepared for the real world, and I’m super excited about it,” said Rep. Muscarello.
State Superintendent of Education Dr. Cade Brumley is praising the move.
“Financial literacy has been an area of need raised consistently by parents across the state. This new law is a common sense approach to help prepare students for life after high school,” said Dr. Brumley to WAFB.
Below are some of the topics the course will cover, according to the Louisiana Department of Education:
o Types of bank accounts offered, opening and managing a bank account
o Assessing the quality of a depository institution’s services
o Balancing a checkbook
o Basic principles of money management, such as spending, credit, credit scores, and managing debt, including retail and credit card debt
o Completing a loan application
o Receiving an inheritance and related implications
o Basic principles of personal insurance policies
o Computing federal income taxes
o Local tax assessments
o Computing interest rates by various mechanisms
o Simple contracts
o Contesting an incorrect billing statement
o Types of savings and investments
o State and federal laws concerning finance
Organizations like the 100 Black Men of Metro Baton Rouge are already offering up a ‘Dollars and $ense’ financial literacy program, knowing how great the need is for students in our area.
State Representative Muscarello said he’s spoken with the state treasurer’s office and has been assured that the funding will be there to start this program across all schools.
“I’m always mindful of fiscal notes and what programs are going to cost. I didn’t want to put a burden on our school districts, so it should be little to no cost,” said Muscarello.
This requirement will begin with students who enter the 9th grade during the 2024-2025 school year or the class of 2028.
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