US Senate Bill 723 will introduce common sense finance classes in high school where students can learn about personal finance. Its author Pennsylvania State Sen. Dan Laughlin is optimistic that the bill will pass.
Wrong financial decisions for students leaving high schools and transitioning into colleges have a life long impact on these students. The bill will address student personal finance issues and guide them into making better decisions.
The bill has already been voted in the state, where it won with a 49-0. The next step will now be to send it to house education committee where it will be discussed in-depth, debated, and voted for or against.
Laughlin compared the expected voting to the one they held in the senate where nobody voted against it. He sees this bill as a bridge between the transition of high school students to adulthood.
The students will make a more informed decision, especially regarding students loans and spending decisions. The students will know what they are getting themselves into when they apply for students loans.
Expected impact on students’ personal finance
Pennsylvania ranks number 1 in the student graduate debt load of an average of $36,193 loan balance. New Jersey and Delaware follow closely in 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. Introduction of this personal finance bill is expected to have a significant impact on this number. To put it into perspective, grade 9 to 12 will be eligible to take this course if the bill is passed.
If the bill is passed this year, students graduating from high school in 2021 will be the first beneficiary of this bill. However, the law is not expected to come into effect until the fall of 2020. The impact of this bill, therefore, is that it will help students make the right decisions in their college choices and student loans.
Kids who complete this course will receive one credit which can satisfy social studies, mathematics, family and consumer science and also business requirements for graduation. It will comprise learning materials such as handling money, learning to manage personal assets and liabilities and have a deeper understanding of the financial institutions.
This policy is a step forward in ensuring that students are well prepared for the future ahead. Graduating students who will have undergone this lessons will be better prepared to handle financial situations with ease, more likely to make the right decisions and also less likely to get into wrong college degrees and apply for unnecessary student loans.
