MCPS SMOB Hana O’Looney initiated a proposition that had long been sought after by teachers and student activists: a mandated financial literacy course for high school students in the district.
The course would be required for high school graduation beginning with the Class of 2028, and is planned to cover topics such as understanding credit scores, filing taxes and applying for student financial aid.
The Board has been discussing options for the new course, such as it being set as a possible fulfiller of the four-year math requirement or the possibility of proficient students testing out of the course. As of now, the Board has set it upon the superintendent to assess the feasibility of implementing the course to schools, with a report deadline of January 2022.
Currently, five out of 25 high schools in MCPS offer a financial literacy course but face low enrollment and an unstandardized curriculum. Furthermore, existing policies have set NSL (national, state, local government) courses to include a two-week seminar on financial management, but this has not been followed in most schools.
Many student leaders are centering their advocacy for this course around the high number of students in the county who have had to teach themselves the various facets of financial literacy because there were no family members who could help them understand finances in the real world.
This proposition has since garnered both support and criticism throughout the county.
“I just wanted to thank Ms. O’Looney for putting this resolution in. [I’m] very excited about it. It’s something that we’ve heard over and over and over again from our students and MCPS graduates who don’t understand how a credit card is or how it works,” BOE member Rebecca Smondrowski said at the BOE’s Oct. 5th meeting when O’Looney’s resolution was first introduced.
Last year, student advocacy group InnovateX launched Project Finance, a program dedicated to the implementation of financial literacy content into the curriculum. Since the possible additional graduation requirement was introduced, many students from the group have provided testimonials to each BOE meeting in favor of the new course.
These favorable sentiments are echoed by other students, but some face concerns on how valuable of a class it would turn out to be.
“I personally think financial literacy classes are a good idea. Many Americans lack the basic skills of financial literacy and paying [their] taxes. However, the downside of such a class is that many students will fail to pay attention or forget it at all. Nevertheless, it’s a step in the right direction,” Richard Montgomery High School junior Edric Lei said.
Some students are worried that the new graduation requirement will follow their experiences with health education.
“Financial literacy is welcome, as a lot of high school criticism is that we don’t learn how to pay taxes. But, health is a sucky class. I personally took it online because it’s a waste of a class slot. So, while the new content may be valuable, wasting an elective slot sucks,” Rockville High School senior Nick Shpiece said.
The Board’s current work not only focuses on adding a financial literacy requirement but also on reevaluating other parts of the school curriculum.
Notably, it has recently decreased elective requirements by a half-credit and increased the health course requirement to one full credit, in addition to content reforms to the county health curriculum in a collaboration between MCPS students and officials.
Written by Ellie Montemayor of Walter Johnson High School
Image “Money” by 401(K) 2013 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Creative Commons