Voters will weigh rule for finance course

“It is time that California students receive the same opportunity to learn these essential skills.” Tim Ranzetta, proponent of ballot initiative requiring high school students to take a personal finance course to graduate

California voters can expect to decide in November whether high school students will have to take a personal finance course in order to graduate, a ballot initiative already drawing vocal support and opposition.

The secretary of state announced Wednesday that the measure is eligible for the ballot, with a sufficient number of signatures to qualify, with official qualification in late June unless withdrawn by the proponents.

While teaching students about personal finance is widely supported, the debate is more about who should decide what students should be taught, including what courses they need to graduate — elected officials, including the state Board of Education, or voters.

In addition, students and others are concerned class schedules are already full of required courses, leaving little room for electives.

Yet, proponents say a semester of personal finance can have a critical impact on the lives of students and their families.

“We are excited that our initiative to guarantee California High School students a personal finance course prior to graduation will be on the November ballot,” said Tim Ranzetta, a proponent of the initiative, in a statement. “This popular, common-sense ballot initiative will allow California to join 25 other states in guaranteeing personal finance education to its high school students. California is behind other states, and it is time that California students receive the same opportunity to learn these essential skills.”

In February, Ranzetta noted that such a course could increase a student’s lifetime earnings by $127,000, according to a 2024 study.

“Personal finance education in high school has a transformative impact throughout a person’s lifetime, positively influencing a wide variety of outcomes, including credit scores, debt management and retirement savings,” he said. “Every student, regardless of where they go to school or their economic background, should have the equal opportunity to learn about personal finance. With a $127,000 lifetime value of a personal finance course, it makes economic sense for California to guarantee this course to all California high school students.”

The concern among some is that determining education policy through the ballot box doesn’t include the thoughtful process and input from experts that is in place to decide curriculum and required coursework, Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California, told CalMatters.

“Most voters don’t know much about education policy, and having them decide what can be taught in schools is a bad idea,” he said. “We already have a process in place for adopting curriculum, and if people are unhappy with it there are plenty of avenues to have their voices heard — they can go to meetings, they can vote people out of office, they can talk to their representatives.”

State legislators are also considering the addition of a semester of personal finance to high school graduation requirements, starting with the class of 2031. It’s unclear whether the idea will have enough support in the Assembly and Senate or whether Gov. Gavin Newsom would sign it. If it does pass those hurdles, the initiative proponents would have time to pull the measure before the ballot deadline.

A semester course of ethnic studies was recently added to graduation requirements, starting with the class of 2030.

So far there is little organized opposition. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond has endorsed the measure.

California voters are likely to face a long list of statewide ballot measures.

So far, seven voter-led measures have qualified for the November ballot, including a proposal to raise the minimum wage and one to allow local governments to enact rent control. At least three more are awaiting verification by the secretary of state, with others facing summer deadlines to qualify.

The California Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday over whether to pull one of those measures from the November ballot before voters have a chance to weigh in. It would drastically limit state and local governments’ ability to raise taxes, but the court appeared reluctant to block it from the ballot.

State lawmakers have sent an additional four measures to the ballot, including one that would remove Prop. 8 — the 2008 voter-approved measure banning samesex marriage, which was later ruled unconstitutional — from the California Constitution.