COVID-19 call to action: Let’s make financial literacy a graduation requirement

Increasing our state’s economic resiliency depends on us correcting the potentially rudderless course of our high school students’ financial futures, and we need to start now.

Those of us who came of age in the 1980s likely remember comedian Steven Wright, whose deadpan delivery and frequent use of absurdist non sequiturs made him one of the era’s most popular comics. He struck a nerve when he quipped, “Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.”

The COVID-19 pandemic brings Wright’s observation uncomfortably close to home. Even with the extraordinary outpouring of financial assistance from both the public and private sectors, the strain of a weakened economy adds financial insult to physical injury.

This pandemic forces us all to face two grim financial realities: 1) There has never been a more important time for individuals — young and old — to possess at least basic financial literacy and 2) states, such as Connecticut, that do not require coursework in economics and personal finance not only ill-prepare our youth for a productive adulthood, but also turn a blind eye to lingering social inequities and abide the widening rich-poor gap.

In the 2020 Survey of the States conducted by the Council for Economic Education (CEE), 21 states require high school students to take a course (standalone or integrated) in personal finance, an anemic increase of four states since 2018. Connecticut, unfortunately, is not among these states. We must act now to take the necessary steps to reduce inequities and make financial literacy a graduation requirement in Connecticut high schools.

Connecticut’s credit unions combat financial literacy inequities every day. As financial cooperatives, a credit union’s shareholders are its members. Some members enter our drive-thru lanes or phone our tellers, and they are stressed. They are anxious. They are uncertain about how to survive financially. Some of them understand their financial realities, but an alarming number do not. If only they received the personal finance education they deserved at an earlier age. Or, like the old song lyric, if only there wasn’t “too much month at the end of the money.”

We all face increasingly difficult financial questions as we take on more responsibility at home and at work. Successfully confronting these questions would be much easier if our high school students learned ways to save or pay for college, analyze opportunities to invest or spend wisely, manage household expenses or credit responsibly and appropriately budget to weather difficult times.

Increasing our state’s economic resiliency depends on us correcting the potentially rudderless course of our high school students’ financial futures, and we need to start now. COVID-19 is a real-world classroom that can help teach a generation how to face and survive severe economic challenges. During this pandemic, and specifically since Gov. Ned Lamont’s March 15 order to close the state’s schools, students have adapted to monumental change, including the realities of virtual classrooms and remote learning. They have accepted this challenge and their adaptability continues to impress us every day.

So, if we can equip these impressive high school students with essential skills to prepare them for college, enter the workforce, pursue trade school or military service, should we not also put their hand on the tiller and show them how to make informed financial choices?

We need to stop leaving their financial futures to chance. We must embrace the critical role financial literacy plays in their lives and combat the insidious injustice of failing to teach basic financial skills to those who need it the most. Their success benefits all of us all down the road.

During the past several years, Connecticut’s credit unions have reached more than 30,000 high school students through Financial Reality Fairs, which are standalone educational modules designed to provide them with a primer in the basics of managing money. We are proud of this effort, but it is not enough.

We need a shared commitment statewide to give our high school students an equal shot at building a stable financial future. This should be one of the most important lessons of this pandemic, so let’s embrace financial literacy like the state has never seen.