UPDATE: the 2023 Financial Education Bill Tracker from Next Gen Personal Finance provides daily updates on which state legislatures have introduced financial education bills for grades K-12 throughout 2023.

The NGPF FinLit Bill Tracker updates you weekly on activity in state legislatures regarding bills focused on financial literacy education. Here's a summary of the 25 states that introduced bills in the first three months of the year. 

Here's what happened last week:

• NGPF's Christian Sherrill provided testimony on April 6th to Hawaii House Education Committee on SCR152; Committee voted in favor of passage; recommending referral to the House Commitee on Consumer Protection
  • Hawaii's SB1004 also progressing with last action: Passed Third Reading with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and none excused (0). Transmitted to Senate.
• NGPF's Yanely Espinal and Tim Ranzetta provided testimony on Rhode Island bills, SB139 and HB5491 on April 7th.  and House Committee on Education recommended that HB5491 be held for further study.
• NGPF Fellow Vincent Branch testified on SB1063 in front of the Texas Senate Committee on Education on April 8th; currently pending in the committee
• Kansas House Bill 2039: Conference Committee Report was adopted; Yea: 72 Nay: 51 (April 9, 2021 in the House)
  • Wichita Eagle published this op-ed on April 9th, Kansas ZIP code should not be destiny when it comes to financial education on Kansas House Bill 2039. 

The week ahead:

• Connecticut's Bill SB1033 [AN ACT CONCERNING THE INCLUSION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND FINANCIAL LITERACY AS PART OF THE HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS] has been referred to Office of Legislative Research and Office of Fiscal Analysis 04/19/21 10:00 AM
• Illinois SB1556 which creates the Equity through Financial Literacy Task Force has hearing scheduled for April 15, 2021 at 8:30am. 
• Rhode Island SB139 placed on Senate Calendar for 4/13/2021. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.