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.

Financial Education is getting attention in state legislatures across the country. As noted earlier, there are 25 states + DC that have introduced bills in 2021.

Here's an status report on where things stand today: 

• 2 states have passed legislation: Arkansas established a Financial Education Commission with SB 599 AND Hawaii passed SCR 152 "Urging the Department of Ed to coordinate with the Dept of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to implement a Graduation requirement of at least a half credit in finlit during the junior/senior year. 
• 7 states including Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas have active bills with some activity in the past week or have activity planned in the next week. 
• 6 states have seen their bills die/sessions adjourned without bill passage including Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico and Oregon. 

That's the 30,000 foot view on legislation. Check out the Got Finance? Map for personal finance education information on over 10,000 high schools and the 2021 State of Financial Education Report to see the grassroots movement afoot in the United States. 

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.