CNBC – Shelly Schwartz
“The number of states that require high school students to complete a course in economics has dropped over the last two years, and mandates for personal finance education in the upper grades remain stagnant, a new survey shows. The biennial Survey of the States by the Council for Economic Education, released exclusively to CNBC.com, found 20 states currently mandate that high school students take economics — two fewer than in 2014…the number of states that require high school students to take a course in personal finance has remained unchanged at 17 since 2014. “We were disappointed to see that no additional states require courses in personal finance to be taught,” said Nan Morrison, president and CEO of the Council for Economic Education…Overall, American students fall in the middle of the pack globally, performing on average just behind Latvia and just ahead of Russia, the OECD data show…Financial education classes offered in the K–12 setting don’t delve into complex concepts…instead, they teach students practical life skills, like how to balance a checkbook, the effect of interest rates and how investments can benefit from compounded growth.”(more)