(KTXL) — Multiple bills have been filed in the California state legislature this session regarding teaching financial literacy to students.
One bill filed by Asm. Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), Assembly Bill 984, would require high school students that graduate starting in the 2028–29 school year to have taken at least one semester of a financial literacy course.
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Under AB 984, schools would be required to start offering a one-semester financial literacy course in the 2025-26 school year.
“Most (students) go into college without any knowledge of personal finance,” Asm. McCarty said in a press release. “This is a time where students are bombarded with credit card offers which can lead to thousands of dollars in debt.”
“Taking a finance class in high school can help students make smart money decisions that will benefit them beyond college,” McCarty continued.
Another bill, Senate Bill 324, which was introduced by Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R-Murrieta), would require the state’s Instructional Quality Commission to include certain topics related to financial literacy in the state’s history-social science curriculum framework.
Students would be required to cover these 11 topics twice between 1st grade and 5th grade, twice between 6th grade and 8th grade, and twice in high school:
-Fundamentals of banking for personal use, including, but not limited to, savings and checking
-Principles of budgeting and personal finance
-Employment and understanding factors that affect net income
-Uses and effects of credit, including the relation of debt and interest to credit
-Uses and costs of loans, including student loans
-Types and costs of insurance
-Forms of governmental taxation
-Principles of investing and building wealth
-Identity theft and security
-Planning and paying for postsecondary education
-Charitable giving
The Instructional Quality Commission is currently only required to consider adding the topics to the history-social science curriculum framework.
Two more bills that have been introduced that deal with allocating funds to purchase financial literacy instructional material.
There is also a fifth bill, Assembly Bill 800, introduced by Asm. Liz Ortega, that would deem the first week of May to be “Workplace Readiness Week” and require high school juniors and seniors to learn about workplace laws, such as wage and hour protections, worker safety, paid sick leave, the right to organize a union and history of the labor movement.
