Ariz. Senate bill makes fiscal sense for teens

Proposal would require personal finance course for graduation

When students graduate from high school, they are generally considered adults, ready to march off into the world armed with the skills they need to navigate through life on their own.

At that point, one is expected to be literate, with some functional knowledge of civics, science, English, grammar, math and more. One has been exposed to art, music, health and physical education, and touched on a variety of other subjects along the way.

In any given day, in any given grade level, teachers have to figure out how weave this all together in some sort of comprehensive tapestry before their students graduate. It’s a mind-boggling task.

A bill at the Arizona Legislature might add another layer to the picture.

“SB 1184 would add a half-credit personal finance course to the state’s highschool graduation requirements. The course would include financial literacy and personal financial management,” the Arizona Republic reports.

According to a press release from the Arizona State Treasurer’s Office, which supports the bill, students would learn how to balance their checkbooks and understand credit and debt.

“This bill will give students the critical, basic life skills to manage their money and have the financial freedom to accomplish anything after graduation,” Treasurer Kimberly Yee said. The bill is one that has merit. Lessons on how to manage money and finances could help a student understand what to do with his own money once he’s in the real world. And that’s not a lesson that a teen is guaranteed to learn at home. After all, if a teen comes from a home fraught with financial challenges, his lessons on the subject might be vastly different that a teen who comes from a more affluent home. A class on the subject at school would mean the same lessons for all teens, arming them all with critical information that could have a lasting impact on their lives.

It’s tough to think of yet another layer of requirements for schools and students. But SB 1184 is one that makes sense for our students.