Hint: It's doubled in the last 7 years. 

Answer: 34.7%

Questions:

• Is a personal finance course a graduation requirement in your school and state? Find your state on this map
• Do you think that personal finance should be a required course? Explain your answer.
• What do you think are the 3 most important financial topics for high school students to learn? Why?

Click here for the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (Annual State of Financial Education Report)

"Why high-fidelity implementation matters: Once all 30 states have implemented their requirements, an additional 45% of public high school students in the U.S. will be required to take a standalone Personal Finance course to graduate"

"Data sources

This report analyzed 12,033 course catalogs from U.S. public high schools serving 11,874,650 students in Grades 9-12 nationwide.

• 10,649 course catalogs are from Prof. Madelaine L’Esperance and her research team’s latest study (2026) at University of Alabama
• 639 course catalogs collected internally by NGPF advocacy researchers in 2026
• 473 course catalogs from prior years’ academic research reports from University of Alabama (2025) and Montana State University (prior) where 2025-2026 course catalogs could not be identified
• 272 course catalogs submitted to NGPF’s LIVE U.S. Dashboard interactive maps (189) or for grant program eligibility (83)"

About the Author

Kathryn Dawson

Kathryn (she/her) is excited to join the NGPF team after 9 years of experience in education as a mentor, tutor, and special education teacher. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in policy analysis and management and has a master's degree in education from Brooklyn College. Kathryn is looking forward to bringing her passion for accessibility and educational justice into curriculum design at NGPF. During her free time, Kathryn loves embarking on cooking projects, walking around her Seattle neighborhood with her dog, or lounging in a hammock with a book.