Finance
Florida’s public high school students benefitting from financial literacy requirement
Do you know the difference between interest rates and mortgage rates? What about a high-yield savings account?
Many of us learn about these terms well into adulthood, if at all, whereas public high school students in Florida do not.
That’s because financial literacy is now a requirement for graduation.
Ms. Martha Delgado doesn’t teach your typical high school class. When students leave her classroom, many will be well ahead of most adults in managing money.
“I worked during the summer, so 30% of my paycheck goes to my savings and the rest goes to my wants and needs,” Willne Pierre said.
Robert Morgan High School juniors Pierre and Diego Acosta are part of a growing group of Florida public school students who will graduate equipped with financial literacy and money management skills.
It’s all thanks to the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act that Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law in 2022. The law requires students to take a personal finance course, and the class of 2027 will be the first class to graduate under the new requirement.
The instruction students are getting goes beyond opening a checking or savings account; they’re also learning how to invest, use credit cards responsibly, understand credit scores, and even apply for financial aid when they go to college.
“They’re learning about when you go to get loans, how do the loans work, compound interest, simple interest, things that I would’ve loved to have when I was growing up as an adult and applying for a loan for a house or a loan for a car,” Delgado said.
Low financial literacy often leads to high debt. Across the country and here in South Florida, people are carrying more debt.
A data tool, the Opportunity Atlas, from the U.S. Census Bureau and Opportunity Insights at Harvard University, takes us inside how South Floridians are faring financially in adulthood.
When looking at people born between 1978 and 1985 across all income levels and races, those in Miami-Dade County had some of the highest levels of debt in the state.
In 2020, the average credit card balance was $5,800, and the average student loan balance was around $18,000.
The average credit scores of those growing up in Miami-Dade were lower than the national average.
“I feel like I can better help my kids because I love my mom, but she hasn’t been able to help me because she doesn’t understand that much, but Ms. Delgado was able to help me, and I want to help other people too,” Acosta said.
Delgado can relate to many of her students, who, like her, come from homes where their parents aren’t able to teach them to manage money responsibly.
“My dad was the single breadwinner,” she said. “We were five kids, so it was a lot for my father, so my dad was just work, work, work, work, so he really didn’t have the time or the tools to tell me anything about financing.”
The Opportunity Atlas shows the economic mobility disparities, that 90% of children born in 1940 earned more than their parents, but today only half do.
But it’s classes like Ms. Delgado’s that could go a long way to help bridge the wealth gap.
Acosta and Pierre are already well on their way to a better financial future. At only 16, both are QuickBooks-certified, and they’re not stopping there.
“My long-term goal is definitely to save for a house that’s number one, and I’m already starting to save for college,” Pierre said.
Finance
Quadient Recognized as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix for Accounts Receivable Applications
Quadient demonstrates continued innovation in AI-driven invoice-to-cash automation and unified finance operations
Paris
Quadient (Euronext Paris: QDT), a global automation platform powering secure and sustainable business connections, announced today it has been recognized for the fifth consecutive year as a Leader in the 2026 SPARK Matrix™ for Accounts Receivable Applications by technology analyst and advisory firm QKS Group. Quadient strengthened its position in the report year-over-year, with a notable improvement in Technology Excellence, reflecting continued innovation in its AI-driven invoice-to-cash solution.
According to QKS Group, Quadient’s leadership position highlights its evolution into a comprehensive, AI-powered platform that delivers strong predictive accuracy and straight-through processing. The analyst firm also emphasized the capability of Quadient’s solutions to unify accounts receivable (AR) and accounts payable (AP), offering finance leaders greater visibility and insights into their business finances to make faster, better decisions on working capital management.
Earlier this month, Quadient announced the release of its new cash dashboard capability for AR and AP that allows finance teams to bring together traditionally siloed data in a single view. An AI assistant summarizes key metrics and provides analysis that helps finance leaders accelerate cash on hand, improve forecasting, reduce risk and uncover opportunities to optimize working capital.
“Quadient has established a strong position in the 2026 Accounts Receivable Automation market through its focus on intelligent automation, cash flow optimization and integrated financial operations,” said Sanjeevi C R, associate vice president, Enterprise Research at QKS Group. “The platform’s evolution from predictive analytics to AI-driven autonomous collections execution represents a meaningful step forward in reducing manual effort across the invoice-to-cash cycle. What differentiates Quadient is its ability to combine collections management, cash application, and payment processing with a unified accounts receivable and accounts payable ecosystem, providing finance leaders with a more holistic view of working capital performance. By enabling greater automation, enhanced cash flow visibility, and more efficient receivables operations, Quadient continues to deliver measurable value for organizations seeking to modernize their financial processes and improve liquidity management.”
QKS Group highlighted the following key strengths for Quadient AR:
The G7 Leaders’ Summit took place in Évia
Why financing matters for forest restoration
Over the past several years, Armonía and local communities have made significant progress restoring parts of the Tunari protected area. To date they have planted 1.25 million trees, with more than half of these planted in the Tiquipaya municipality. Community wildfire brigades have been strengthened, reservoirs built to secure water, and new systems created for communities to participate in watershed management.
One of the most important actions was strengthening the structure and function of a watershed governance body, known as Organismo de Gestión de Cuencas (OGC). This coordinates restoration activities and helps design sustainable development strategies for the communities living in the park, helping rebuild trust between them, park authorities and conservation organisations. Women leaders have played an important role in shaping this work.
However, a major challenge was highlighted – restoration takes decades, but most conservation funding arrives through short-term projects. Without stable long-term financing, restoration gains are difficult to maintain.
How the financing model would work
The proposed PES mechanism would collect small contributions directed into a transparent trust fund with independent governance. Resources would then be invested in three main areas:
- Forest restoration and protection – Communities would receive incentives for protecting existing forest and payments tied to successful restoration outcomes.
- Community sustainable development – Investments would support livelihood activities that reduce pressure on the forest, such as sustainable agriculture, water management and local enterprises.
- Strengthening park management – Funds would help support ranger capacity, wildfire prevention and long-term monitoring within Tunari National Park.
For communities, the system recognises their role as custodians of the watershed. For urban residents, it offers a practical way to support the ecosystems that provide their water. For public and private partners, it creates a transparent structure for long-term investment in landscape restoration.
Once fully implemented, the mechanism could generate an estimated £3 million per year for watershed protection and restoration.
Designing a Payment for Ecosystem Services mechanism
Over the past two years, Armonía has worked with municipalities, communities and regional institutions to explore how a PES mechanism could work in the Cochabamba region.
The PES concept is straightforward. Communities living in the upper watershed protect and restore forests that provide essential services such as water regulation, erosion control and biodiversity conservation. Downstream users who benefit from these services contribute financially to support that stewardship.
Through the Accelerator process, Armonía undertook studies, assessments and consultations across the Cochabamba metropolitan area’s seven municipalities. Many residents recognised that protecting the forest is directly linked to their water security. Based on these encouraging results, Armonía and their partners are developing a regional trust fund.
Building the institutions behind the mechanism
The financing system is only one piece of the puzzle – strong governance and community participation are also essential. With FIA support, Armonía is now helping communities develop ten-year sustainable development strategies that identify restoration priorities and income opportunities. A multi-stakeholder platform will oversee the initiative and guide decisions, while the park administration is also receiving support to strengthen monitoring, prevent wildfires and improve co-ordination.
A new model for watershed protection
The work underway in Tunari is about more than planting trees. It’s about building a durable system that links ecological restoration, community leadership and long-term financing. Once the mechanism is operational, it could transform how the Tunari watershed is managed. Instead of relying on intermittent projects, the region would have a locally supported financing system that rewards stewardship and protects the Kewiña forests that has supported life in the Andes for centuries.
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