Dive Brief:
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A new study shows students who take a high school financial literacy course turn into more responsible money managers.
- The study looked at 65,000 college students who took a financial literacy course in high school and found first-year college students who took the course did better on the survey’s financial knowledge questions, were more resistant to debt, more likely to pay credit card bills on time, and less likely to go over their card limit.
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Currently, only 17 states require high school financial literacy courses.
Dive Insight:
Today, the number one reason why students drop out of college is because of finances. The same way math and language arts are important, financial literacy can have massive impacts on the course of a person’s life. We often assume that is the responsibility of a parent to teach, or students can innately pick up on money management; however, that is not always the case and providing those foundations in high school can have profound impacts once students are independents, as the study shows.
It is important to note the study was conducted by EverFi and Higher One, organizations that help implement financial literacy programs — so they are not exactly neutral on the topic. The organizations hope the study’s results will help lawmakers and schools see the importance of implementing financial literacy courses in high school and colleges.