Ohio Students Must Pass Financial Literacy Class to Graduate

Ohio high schoolers must pass a financial literacy course in order to graduate due to the new Senate Bill 1 signed by Governor Dewine on October 28th.

The bill sponsored by senators Steve Wilson and Rob McColley, will require students who enter ninth grade after January of 2022 to have completed a half-credit of a financial literacy course in order to graduate.

Students will be required to take one half-year course or at least 60 hours of financial literacy.

Senator Steve Wilson (R. Maineville) believes financial literacy is extremely important for everybody.

“This ensures that this very important skill is taught to students and that they have the basics of financial literacy so they don’t have credit card debt run up and get a low credit score, they don’t take on too much student debt. They don’t have a home repossessed and they don’t go into bankruptcy. We are helping them,” Wilson said.

This bill is not a new mandate for schools to teach financial literacy, it is already a requirement. Senate Bill 1 gives more structure on how it should be taught and requirements for the course.

Crestwood Schools superintendent Dave Toth said they have already had a financial literacy course in place so it won’t be a big change for them, but can see how it may be a challenge for other schools. 

“It’s a challenge for some districts because depending on the district, they may have to hire staff to do it and some teachers may need more training, so there’s always a monetary thing,” Toth said.

Toth believes it is extremely important for students to be financially literate and believes it is important for students to learn about finances in schools.

There are four parts to the new bill; every school in the state of Ohio is required to teach the course, there is a set curriculum for the course, there are certain credentials teachers must have to teach the course, and the financial literacy fund. 

“It is not an unfunded mandate, we have provided the financial literacy fund that will provide money to get teachers trained and materials needed,” said Wilson.

Olivia Robbins, a Kent State senior wishes that this would have been a requirement when she was in high school. 

“I wish it was a requirement when I went to school that we would have to know more about financial literacy because I came to college and basically had to teach myself while I was going through the loan process,” Robbins said.

Robbins believes it would have been beneficial to know more about how loans and credit scores work before coming to college.

“It would have been nice to learn more about the behind-the-scenes aspects of money because I really only knew the basics. I didn’t know how a credit score could be impacted or what a loan actually meant,” said Robbins.

Students are expected to learn about taxes, loans, interest rates, credit, and other necessary financial things that will help them be informed and make good decisions when it comes to finances.

Wilson said after five years of researching the bill, it is comparable to Tennessee’s financial literacy program.

“Tennessee just knocks it out of the park with their kids coming out of school and not getting in trouble with student debt, credit cards, credit scores, repossessions, foreclosures, and bankruptcies. So it’s proven in other states and particularly Tennessee that this works,” said Wilson.

According to the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy, “financial literacy is linked to positive outcomes, such as wealth accumulation, stock market participation, and effective retirement planning.”

Tennessee was one out of the five states that received an “A” from Champlain College’s 2017 National Report Card on financial education.

As of 2017, Ohio has a B ranking but might change based on the success of the new bill. 

11 states have no requirements for financial literacy and have received F ratings.

According to the Tennessee Department of Education, the state’s personal finance course is “designed to inform students how individual choices directly influence occupational goals and future earnings potential.”

Ohio has now become the 10th state to require personal finance education in high schools.

The decision also comes after Wilson has experienced people not being financially literate. 

“I was a banker for 41 years and I have personally witnessed the effects of not teaching financial literacy in schools,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the bill has taken five years due to several different roadblocks they have encountered.

“I was trying to be a little more aggressive with the beginning, but had to give into a number of things like the flexibility and like allowing teachers that have been teaching it to be grandfathered for a certain period of time, just lots and lots and lots of compromises,” Wilson said.

Senate Bill 1 also mentions the shortages of substitute teachers and provides school districts with more hiring flexibility.