Thirty-nine states now require a personal-finance course to graduate high school, with four adding the mandate since 2024. In a world of limited resources, state education departments are giving priority to the practical over the conceptual. At Brooklyn Preparatory High School last week, Diana Isern asked a group of about 20 teens in her personal-finance class to research their prospective colleges and compare price tags and graduate earnings data. She’s not looking forward to the economics class she has to take later this year, which is also a graduation requirement at Brooklyn Prep. “I always felt like that was a gap in our educational system,” said Scott Seavers, who 20 years ago asked if he could teach a personal-finance class at Columbus North High School in Indiana.

Source: Wall Street Journal March 22, 2026 12:56 UTC