The Growing Trend of Financial Literacy Education in American High Schools

Tennessee was one of the first states to mandate a half-semester personal finance course for high school graduation, serving as a model for other states. As of 2023, 23.6% of U.S. public high school students are guaranteed to take a personal finance course, up from 16.9% in 2019. However, access gaps exist along racial, socioeconomic, and geographic lines. Tennessee is one of the few states that requires both economics and personal finance courses, but advocates say there is still room for improvement in incorporating financial literacy into schools at an earlier age. The Tennessee Financial Literacy Commission aims to expand financial literacy programming and highlights the benefits of teaching children financial literacy early on.