ST. PAUL, Minn. — On Wednesday, Senator Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-Eden Prairie) presented his bill to require a personal finance class for high school students before the Education Policy Committee on Wednesday.
“When I was door knocking this last (election), I ran into so many constituents, as we all did, that talked about their 19-year-old son who has all this college debt, or their 18-year-old daughter who gets bombarded by credit card (offers),” said Senator Cwodzinski. “We’re not even teaching our kids how to read a payroll check… If our young people are making better economic decisions than perhaps we made, that would be wonderful for the nation and our state as well.”
“When I entered the real world and tried to manage my own finances, I recognized I didn’t know much about credit scores, 401ks, and loans,” Jaeden Sims, a student at Macalester College in Saint Paul. “Luckily, I had parents and family members who had some knowledge of financial literacy, but what about the kids who weren’t exposed (to that knowledge)?… When I recall back to my high school years, I remembers students who were either the first ones to go to college or the first ones to finish high school in their family. Having a class that teaches high schoolers—first gen or not—the importance of finances, can help implement good financial stances for their families… Financial literacy should be a class that is a graduation requirement because it can lead to a healthy economy, good financial decision making, and strong relationships between families and better knowledge about real-world finances in general.”
SF 901 was laid over for possible inclusion in an omnibus bill.
###
Learn more about Sen. Cwodzinski.
Read more news from Sen. Cwodzinski.
