Learning about business and finance isn’t something that you have to wait until college to do. In fact, according to an article in USA Today, many states are requiring students to complete coursework in personal finance in order to graduate. Even in those states that do not require the coursework, many of the individual schools do require their students to complete a personal finance course in order to graduate.

The recession appears to have inspired a growing number of states and schools to require personal finance courses. In fact, the USA Today article reports that only 9 states requires their schools to offer a personal finance course in 2007, but this number grew to 15 in 2009. Furthermore, only seven states required students to complete a personal finance course in order to graduate in 2007. By 2009, this number grew to 13. Even the federal government has jumped on the bandwagon, with the U.S. Treasury Department announcing a national award program designed to encourage financial education in the schools.

“The students are hungry for this information,” said John Parfrey, who is the director of the National Endowment for Financial Education’s high school program, “They see what is going on in their own home.”

Traditionally, most schools have included personal finance as part of elective home economics courses, if the subject was taught at all. As a result, students have simply learned their spending habits – whether they are good or bad – from their parents.

“It was not seen as a necessary life skill, and it was sort of seen as the kind of thing that should probably be learned in the home,” said Jim Hedemark, who is the executive director of Rhode Island Jump Start Coalition, which works to promote financial literacy among youth as well as other vulnerable groups.

As personal finance has become more complicated and as families have taken on more credit card debt, however, young people have not been learning the valuable skills they need to know in order to avoid repeating the same negative financial patterns. As such, many high schools are now taking on the task of better preparing students to handle their finances after graduation.
“A good place to start so this doesn’t happen again is the high school level. That’s where younger people start to become more financially independent,” said Connecticut state Sen. Scott Frantz, who is trying to get a new law passed that will require public high school students to learn financial basics such as the basics of home mortgage lending, the dangers of accumulating debt and excessive speculation. Federal officials seem to agree, with the new National Financial Capability Challenge being announced this month.

“[Society needs to make sure] students graduate from high school with a better understanding of basic economics, basic finance and the benefits and risks associated with debt,” said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner when referring to the new challenge.