By the time high school seniors cross the graduation stage, they’ve likely been exposed to algebra and geometry concepts, read at least some Classic literature, and taken a foreign language. But do they understand how money works in the real world?
Do they know that interest accrues on a credit card if you don’t pay the bill in full each month—or even what interest is? Will they take on debt for college, assuming they’ll somehow figure out later how to repay the loans? And do they understand that poor financial decisions made as young adults can have long and expensive consequences?
Chances are, no. Fewer than half of adults ages 18-29 say they know at least a fair amount about personal finance topics, including banking, credit, debt management, and savings, according to the Pew Research Center. They’re also most likely to get information about personal finance online—and least likely to have learned about it from their K-12 education. Lawmakers are trying to change that.
In the last handful of years, interest in adding personal finance to the high school curriculum has skyrocketed. Between 2021 and 2024, the number of states adding personal finance coursework as a graduation requirement more than tripled. By 2024, 25 states made personal finance education a graduation requirement, up from just 8 in 2021. To date, 39 states have passed legislation requiring personal finance courses for high school graduation, according to the Council for Economic Education.
But not all personal finance education coursework is created equally. And the differences in how schools deliver this education show up later, say experts—from the way graduates manage their money to how they feel about their financial well-being.
Rigorous, stand-alone courses show a positive impact on behavior
Stand-alone courses in personal finance and those that offer strong teacher training appear to be key to making the learning stick. And the positive effects can be seen almost immediately, according to recent research.
Carly Urban, a researcher and professor of economics at Montana State University who has studied the effects of personal finance education extensively, led what’s believed to be the first-ever study to explore the impact of high school financial education policies on financial behaviors of recent graduates.
The 2018 study analyzed credit outcomes for young adults in Georgia and Texas, states with “rigorous” personal finance graduation requirements that include teacher training, certification incentives, and student testing.
Using the Federal Reserve Bank of New York/Equifax Consumer Credit Panel, researchers tracked individuals ages 18 through 21. The results were clear: Students who received stronger finance education generally made better decisions around credit.
“We find that high school financial education graduation requirements, on average, lead to higher credit scores and reduced rates of credit delinquencies,” Urban said.
More recent research reinforces that the structure of personal finance courses matters. A 2025 study co-authored by Urban compared stand-alone personal finance courses with those that embed finance topics into pre-existing courses. Drawing on national survey and credit panel data, researchers found that stand-alone courses improved long-term credit scores through age 34—while embedded approaches showed no measurable effect.
Stand-alone courses also improved financial well-being, a measure defined by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as how well consumers keep up with day-to-day finances, and how well one’s personal financial goals align with reality, Urban explained.
“It’s intended to be independent of income, so a high-income person can still be far off from where they want to be and not keeping up with expenses, and a low-income person can be on top of their expenses and exactly where they want to be goals-wise,” she said.
‘Workarounds’ and other obstacles to effective personal finance education
The rapid acceleration of states adopting personal finance education as a graduation requirement seems impressive. But under the surface, the narrative is less so.
Thirteen of the 39 states that now require personal finance coursework allow it to be embedded, or woven, into other courses, according to the Council for Economic Education. And when personal finance is embedded into another required class, such as economics, less than half of schools actually implement the personal finance requirement, Urban said. Her 2024 study found that just 39% of students get any personal finance instruction in states with “embedded” requirements.
Funding prevents some states from adopting more rigorous personal finance courses. Most of these state mandates are underfunded, explains Urban. And stand-alone courses generally cost more to develop. And finding teachers trained or willing to be trained in personal finance can be challenging.
Plus, legislation doesn’t always lead to effective implementation. Policies can be delayed, weakened, or rewritten before reaching classrooms. “Sometimes the legislation gets passed… [but] by the time the first graduating class would have to do it, it either gets kicked down the road or rewritten or watered down or edited in some way, so that it doesn’t actually happen,” Urban said.
Even when legislation does take effect, some students find ways to get out of taking the courses. In Missouri, for example, students can “test out” of the course. In Rhode Island, students can do a project instead of taking the class, Urban said.
But for students who do take a semester-long course in personal finance, and apply what they’ve learned, the benefits can be immediate and long-lasting.
“We can see that they’re making smarter post-secondary borrowing decisions; they’re less likely to use credit cards to finance college, and more likely getting grants and scholarships and subsidized loans,” she said. “There’s also some good evidence out there that shows that people who had personal finance in high school and received stimulus money were more likely to pay down debt … to do smarter things with it.”
