While high school students learn poetic devices in English and how to convert moles to grams in chemistry, many graduate without a basic understanding of how a credit card works, rules of interest compounds, or how to file a tax return. This gap isn’t a reflection of someone’s academic abilities, but rather a display of why schools need to teach financial literacy courses or make it a requirement for students. This lack of education affects real world decisions made by teenagers once they’ve reached adulthood. Making a financial literacy class a graduation requirement would not only help the current generation of teenagers, but ensure the financial stability of future generations.

The average American carries about $104,755 in consumer debt, contributing to roughly $18 trillion in total consumer debt nationwide. This debt rarely disappears overnight; for many people it becomes a lifelong burden that shapes housing, career and family decisions. According to Experian, 73 percent of Americans die with around $60,000 worth of debt, meaning every four out of five people you meet won’t be able to leave anything behind for their loved ones.

Children typically learn more quickly than adults do, so why are adults learning all of the complicated financial aspects on their own and not when they’re in high school? According to Cobb Global Outreach, the reasons are simple; school calendars are packed, and many districts have a shortage of adequate teachers trained to deliver quality personal-finance lessons. Unlike mandatory math and English courses that a student must take to graduate, there are no graduation requirements stating that an individual must take a personal-finance class.

It’s not a theory—forcing students to figure this out on their own is a policy choice. It is a choice that repeatedly advantages those who can pay for coaching or parental help.

The problem of financial literacy not being taught in schools isn’t because it’s not a useful life skill, but because it’s traditionally never been taught in public schools before. While core subjects are important for finding a career and making a living, knowing how to claim taxes back and how credit cards work is a skill that is just as instrumental.

The Nation’s Report Card, which surveys all 50 states and gives them a letter grade based on their financial literacy requirements in grades K-12, gave Massachusetts a C. This is because Massachusetts does not require a stand-alone personal finance course for graduation and leaves much of the instruction to local decisions. Out of more than 300 districts in the state, only 16 require students to pass a personal finance course. In other words, whether a student learns to balance a budget often depends on where they happen to attend school.

Sean Simonini joined his town’s school board as a representative over his frustrations of not having a financial literacy class be a graduation requirement. He is now a 19-year-old college sophomore who has testified at the State House and is still voicing his concerns, years after graduating.

“We are allowing 18-year-olds to sign off on loans that are half a mortgage. Hundreds of thousands [of dollars] in an instant,” Simonini said in an interview with CBS. “And we are not orienting them at all to the financial impacts that can have on them decades down the road.”

According to Sue Camparato, a Swampscott teacher whose district does require a financial literacy course, her students learn about credit scores, interest and how to file taxes — lessons students repeatedly tell her they wish they had learned sooner.

“I never have anyone say, ‘When am I going to use this?’ Never,” Camparato said in an interview with CBS.

Students who get this instruction leave school with practical tools, and those who don’t, leave with a diploma and no defense against predatory interest and confusing contracts.

While most of the consumer debt is credit card based, a lot of it is student loans. Which for many young adults is the first legal document they sign, and they often don’t know what they’re signing up for going into the future.

“There’s a lot of confusion [around student loans] and I think it’s because [they are] 18, 19-year-old, 20-year-old students who are making these really big decisions, and I for one had never made a purchase like $40,000 before, so I didn’t really understand what that would entail or what that meant in the long run,” Emily Garvey, a student loan borrower interviewed by KALW said.

According to a Ghostwriter poll, out of around 200 students surveyed, 26 percent are currently enrolled in a financial literacy class while 74 percent aren’t.

“Taking a financial literacy class will probably be beneficial to a lot of people,” A WA student said in the poll.

While many students like Simonini swear by the usefulness of a financial literacy class, not all students think the same way.

“Taking a class like financial literacy would be good since it’s important for students to learn these things, but I feel like forcing students to learn it won’t make people care about it,” A different WA student said in the same poll.

Critics argue that mandating a stand-alone financial literacy course will crowd out electives, reduce student choice and create another poorly taught requirement if not executed properly. They have a point—poorly designed, underfunded mandates can be a box-checking exercise. But the real answer is not to do nothing, it’s to mandate with severity: require the course while funding teacher training, curriculum, and a statewide capstone or assessment that ensures quality. A half-baked requirement helps no one; however, a funded, well-implemented one actually closes the equity gap some students now face.

Other states have moved faster. A growing number of states now guarantee a standalone personal-finance course or an approved pathway to meet the same learning goals. National non-profits and community banking groups in Massachusetts, such as the Massachusetts Bankers Association and The Institution for Savings have publicly urged lawmakers to require such a course and to fund teacher training and materials, so poorer districts aren’t left behind.

According to a press release by Mass.gov, MA is ranked number one in the national education assessment but still doesn’t require a financial literacy class in high school. While states like Alabama and West Virginia, which rank 50th and 46th according to a 2026 public schools ranking, require a financial literacy class in high school. Even though Massachusetts has the best public schools in the nation, their students aren’t graduating with as much financial competence as someone from Alabama.

What would a sensible requirement look like? Most states that require personal-finance mandate the equivalent of a one-semester course—roughly 2.5 credits—that covers practical units: budgeting and cash flow, banking and payments, credit and debt management, taxes and paychecks, basics of insurance and retirement, and an introduction to investing and home buying.

Policymakers in Boston are already discussing change. The Healey-Driscoll administration’s proposed statewide high school graduation framework that explicitly calls for life-skills and career readiness to be a part of graduation requirements, with financial literacy being listed among those skills. That is progress, but a framework that leaves implementation entirely up to districts is not the same as a clear, statewide, graduation-course mandate that ensures every student receives the same instruction.

Providing students with the ability to take a financial literacy class is important, but if it’s not mandatory there will still be students who either want to take the class but don’t have time in their schedule, or just don’t want to take the class at all.

If Massachusetts is serious about preventing decades of avoidable financial harm, the Commonwealth should act. Lawmakers must adopt a minimum, statewide requirement (a semester course or equivalent), that fund teacher professional development and curriculum materials through a dedicated state fund, and require a common assessment or capstone so students across districts actually learn the same skills.

For the Westford community and the Commonwealth, the path forward is clear cut. Require the instruction, fund the training, and make sure every graduate has the tools to make choices that don’t cost them decades of financial stress. We teach students to master tests; we should also teach them to master the financial decisions that follow them home. A diploma without that guarantee is half a promise.