With NGPF's Report being featured on CNBC's Squawk Box last week, what's getting educators and advocates squawking about this groundbreaking research?

NGPF's Annual State of Financial Education Report was featured on CNBC's Squawk Box last week. See the story below from legendary personal finance reporter Sharon Epperson, who interviewed NGPF's Director of Educational Outreach, Yanely Espinal, for the story. You might even see some familiar teacher friends in the segment!

What makes NGPF's State of Financial Education report so different?

Instead of relying on subjective policy interpretation, we check the ticker tape - ahem, the course catalogs. Each school year since 2017-2018, our team has analyzed thousands of individual high school course catalogs (over 12,500 this year alone) to find what level of access each student has to personal finance courses and instruction in their school.

Why do this painstaking, eye-straining work... school by school? The NGPF State of Financial Education Report helps educators, advocates, and policymakers more clearly understand the progress we're making toward Mission 2030: our community's goal that by the year 2030, all U.S. high school students will be guaranteed to take at least one semester course in personal finance before graduation. Plus, we got lots of help this year from our partner in this research, Dr. Carly Urban at Montana State University.

Dive in to NGPF's State of Financial Education Report today!

3 unique insights from the 2023-2024 State of Financial Education Report

1. 25 States representing over 53% of public high school students in the United States now guarantee all high schoolers will take a standalone personal finance course of at least one semester before graduation. In a sign of building momentum, that is up from 17 states representing 40% just 12 months ago.

The NGPF community's advocacy efforts, including campaigns led by NGPF's affiliated nonprofit NGPF Mission 2030 Fund, are directly expanding guaranteed access to personal finance courses at a record-smashing pace, and we're just getting started. Check out pages 3 and 4 of this year's report for more detail!

2. 10 states have fully implemented standalone personal finance course guarantees for the graduating class of 2024 and beyond, and 15 states are in the process of implementing the guaranteed personal finance course for future graduating classes.

Understanding which implementation phase each state is in is crucial for resource allocation to:

• standards adoption,
• professional development plans,
• curriculum development efforts,
• staffing reallocation, and
• enrollment

For example, it doesn't make sense for an education leader in a state that is is very early in its implementation to be using finite resources on curriculum development (especially because the most trusted personal finance curriculum is free and open for all educators). It may, however, make sense to use those resources to plan professional development and facilitate standards adoption.

Further along in implementation, education leaders should be laser-focused on professional development, staffing, and enrollment.

Best of all, no state education leader has to go it alone. Check out NGPF's 2023-2024 State of Financial Education Report, especially pages 9-12, for more detailed implementation insights from three states that have fully implemented this guaranteed course!

3. State policies that require schools to embed personal finance instruction into other courses don't get implemented equally.

This insight will be common sense for the educators reading this blog. When your state hands down a mandate to include a bunch of other content standards in your already crowded curriculum, you know how that goes. Yet, even in 2024, policymakers in several of the 26 states without the standalone graduation requirement are still suggesting this policy for personal finance: just jam it into some other course and call it a day. We know this doesn't work.

By examining course catalogs (instead of taking this policy at face value), the report shows exactly which students are missing out on financial education. This is alarming but crucial evidence that allows all of us to make an even stronger case for standalone, guaranteed personal finance courses: the Gold Standard that all students deserve. Check out pages 6 and 8 for more detail!

Thank you for reading and sharing this year's report, and for advocating for #mission2030!

About the Author

Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.

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