Finance
High school financial literacy requirement long overdue, experts say
Rina Foley would like to see some of her peers boost their personal finance prowess.
“I honestly don’t think this generation has a good knowledge of how to handle their finances,” said Foley, 21, of Leechburg and a senior at Seton Hill University.
That’s bad for young adults and society in general, according to numerous studies of the issue.
A 2014 National Institutes of Health report that looked at multiple peer-reviewed studies on debt among adolescents showed that debt rate correlates with juvenile crime rates.
The overview of studies found about half of adolescents reported having debt, with 25% reporting “financial problems.” The study also found that serious and/or habitual juvenile offenders were more likely to report money problems than those without debt.
A Forbes Advisors survey last year found alarming links between debt and mental health issues.
Among the Forbes findings of those reporting financial problems:60% of respondents reported their problems caused conflicts in their relationships with others
54% reported they often or always felt stress
66% reported they were considering filing for bankruptcy
48% reported sleep problems
38% reported experiencing a diminished social life
34% reported depression
But learning how to manage debt, budget and invest to avoid financial problems is a subject often not required in high schools.
That’s set to change in a few years.
In December, Pennsylvania became the 25th state to pass legislation, Senate Bill 843, making it mandatory for the 2026-27 school year for high school students to complete a semesterlong course in financial literacy.
Currently, Pennsylvania does not have any personal finance course or standards requirements for high school graduation.
Pennsylvania Auditor General Timothy L. DeFoor toured multiple high schools statwide in 2023, including Ligonier Valley High School, to see firsthand how they’re teaching financial literacy to students.
“We have a generation of students who need to understand debt, know how to sustain wealth and learn how to be money smart,” DeFoor said in a press release. “Having access to financial literacy curriculum in high school levels the playing fields for all Pennsylvanians.”
While at Leechburg Area High School, Foley selected personal finance as an elective, choosing from three finance-related courses: Principals of Democracy, Personal Finance and Consumer Math.
“I felt it was important to have some knowledge of how finances work. I was going to college, and it was important to know how to save and how to have a budget for certain things,” she said.
Leader in financial literacy
Hempfield Area High School pioneered the finance path in Westmoreland County, offering student financial literacy in 2017, requiring students to complete a half-credit finance course.
“We were the first in the area and one of only a handful of high schools in the state to make it a graduation requirement,” said John Howell, Hempfield teacher and business department chair.
Howell described the research numbers surrounding financial literacy, or the lack thereof, in America as “astounding.”
He noted 76% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck; 50% of working Americans have less than $2,000 saved for retirement; and more than 50% of Americans didn’t save any money in 2023.
“Those numbers were shocking, and equally shocking is no one was teaching financial literacy to young people at any level of education,” Howell said.
In his interactions with his students, Howell said many students have little knowledge about credit scores, credit history, how to build a credit score and what can hurt a credit score.
“This is one of the biggest deficiencies for students, as well as ways to invest money,” Howell said.
Topics covered in high school financial literacy courses include buying a car, renting, insurance, buying a house, diversification, investing for retirement, online banking, getting a credit card, fixing your credit, paying taxes, choosing and balancing a checking account, budgeting and savings and risk versus return.
Hempfield officials initially offered the financial course to freshmen but found students at that age were not quite ready to understand or appreciate the importance of the course.
“We moved it to 11th-grade level, and it was a game changer,” Howell said. “At that age, a student has a much greater interest and appreciation for what we’re teaching them since many of them are starting to think about buying a car, renting their own apartment, going to college or technical school or entering the workforce, where they will be individually responsible for the financial choices they make.”
Howell teaches several financially-based sections, including a 16-week stock market project.
The students are exposed to various features of the stock market, learn how to read stock reports and how to create a diversified stock portfolio.
Investment simulations include showing students the difference between investing from the age of 25 compared to starting at 40, based on a retirement age of 65.
“It’s literally jaw-dropping for them. We stress heavily that time is your best friend when it comes to investing and why they need to start earlier rather than later,” Howell said.
At Riverview Junior-Senior High School in Oakmont, senior Gwyneth Fichte is learning how to help herself be more financially responsible.
“I struggle financially, personally, because I don’t have a lot of guidance from my parents,” Fichte said. “I am very reckless with my money, and I’m trying to learn money management skills.”
Fichte said the course she’s taking at Riverview kicked off with a wants, needs and values lesson, taught by teacher Patsy Kvortek.
Kvortek advocated for personal finance being mandatory at Riverview, and the high school began requiring the yearlong course in 2015.
“I think that was the biggest thing we learned. It’s good to really ask yourself is this a want or is this a need?” Fichte said.
Louis Ruediger | TribLive
Riverview High School teacher Patsy Kvortek works with her senior class on the process of building a personal spending plan during a recent class.
Nationally, 87% of teenagers own an iPhone and expect an iPhone to be their next phone, and 72% of teens have Airpods.
About 39% of teens work part time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Certified financial adviser Gene Natali, CEO and co-founder of Troutwood, a financial planning and education company, and author of the award-winning teen/college finance book “The Missing Semester” said the new mandate for public high schools is “giant.”
“The passing of personal finance (requirements) will immediately benefit the student. The second beneficiary will be their parents and, then, a giant community impact will happen as students apply what they learn to better their financial lives,” Natali said.
Natali of McCandless has given more than 1,000 presentations across the U.S. on personal finance for high school and college students.
“Budgeting and the stock market is the greatest interest for high school students, and one of the reasons is that technology investments have made it possible to invest with smaller amounts,” Natali said.
The pensions of the past are just that, Natali said, noting that of today’s teens, only about 1% will have access to a pension.
“We had pension funds and cash purchases, and now we have apps and influencers,” Natali said.
What we see or observe as kids does influence us in terms of financial literacy, he said.
Natali has taught a one-credit elective personal finance course at the University of Pittsburgh since 2015.
“Students have got to do what a pension once did for them,” Natali said. “The single biggest challenge of personal finance is replacing what the pension did. Otherwise, these kids are gonna be working until they’re 100.”
Natali works to provide educators with information and materials to help high school students grasp a better understanding of their finances and see its importance.
“He’s been a huge advocate in Pennsylvania for making financial literacy a graduation requirement,” Howell said.
Student spending sparks interest
Riverview senior Cohen Hoolahan of Oakmont said it’s a good thing Riverview students are required to study personal finance before graduating.
“I actually was interested in finance before taking the class, and it’s better as a senior to take it because you can remember a lot of the stuff more. It’s learning about adult life. For me, I don’t really spend that much. I don’t need that much stuff,” Hoolahan said. “The course isn’t boring because it’s helping you for the future.”
Fichte opened a bank account and works part time tutoring flute lessons.
“A lot of people are ‘ugh’ about taking it, but I think it’s a very helpful course and something people should be taking,” Fichte said.
In the region, personal finance courses are offered sporadically among districts.
Fox Chapel Area School District offers an online-only personal finance elective course.
Highlands High School in Harrison offers an optional semester course in personal finance, required for the incoming class of 2025.
At Kiski Area High School, freshmen are required to take a personal finance course.
Senior Owen Nuttall of Leechburg took a personal finance course taught by Leechburg Area teacher Jill Shipman when he was a sophomore.
Nuttall said learning about budgets is the foundation of personal finance.
“I learned how important it is to create a budget, manage your money, writing a check, going to a bank, and I handle my own personal banking,” Nuttall said. “I think it’s about 50-50 with teens on who knows about handling their own finances.”
Nuttall said he is feeling more financially confident as he nears graduation.
“It’s great and you learn more about finances coming out of high school,” said Nuttall, who has his own savings and checking accounts.
“I think teaching kids early on will help them learn the importance of saving and knowing their true financial situation. I think it should be mandatory — like math class,” Foley said.
“It’s really important. This course sets you up for your real future — and other classes are important and set you on a path to an occupation — but this class helps you with everything you’ll be doing in your adult life,” Hoolahan said.
Leechburg senior Giavonna Spagnola of West Leechburg is enrolled in her second personal finance elective course.
She took Consumer Math as a junior and is taking Principles of Democracy.
“I learned about insurance, calculating health and car insurance and interest rates,” Spagnola said. “We had to analyze interest rates for purchasing a car, a home, and I wanted to take it because it’s a math credit and it taught me real-world stuff that I think I need.”
Howell said sometimes parents approach Hempfield Area staff and offer thanks for teaching the course.
“They say they’ve seen a more conservative spending approach by their child. The statistics prove there is a real lack of understanding and importance for the current generation as to how they spend money, and something needed to be done,” Howell said of the newly passed legislation. “This is a huge step in the right direction to help our young people learn the importance of their finance choices, now and in the future. Financial literacy is truly a lifelong skill, and we’re very proud to have been ahead of the curve in seeing this need for our students.”
Joyce Hanz | TribLive
Leechburg Area finance students (from left) Owen Nuttall, Giavonna Spagnola, Callie Ancosky and Alyssa Foley talk about what they’re learning in class.
Joyce Hanz is a TribLive reporter covering the Alle-Kiski Valley. A native of Charleston, S.C., she graduated from the University of South Carolina. She can be reached at jhanz@triblive.com
Banks have had a stellar first quarter. The major U.S. banks raked in nearly $50 billion in profits in the first three months of the year, The Guardian reported.
That was largely due to Wall Street bank traders, who profited from a volatile stock exchange, Reuters showed.
But even without the extra bump from stock trading, banks are doing well when it comes to interest, the same Reuters article found. And some banks could stand to benefit even more from this one potential rule change.
Morgan Stanley thinks it could have a major impact on Citi in particular.
Upcoming changes for banks
To understand why Morgan Stanley thinks things are going to change at Citi, you need to understand some recent bank rule changes.
Banks make money by lending out money, which usually comes from depositors. But people need access to their money and the right to withdraw whenever they want.
So, banks keep a percentage of all money deposited to make sure they can cover what the average person needs.
But what happens if there is a major demand for withdrawals, as we saw during the financial crisis of 2008?
That’s where capital requirements come in. After the financial crisis, major banks like Citi were required by law to hold a higher percentage of money in order to avoid major bank failures.
For years, banks had to put aside billions of dollars. Money that couldn’t be lent out or even returned to shareholders.
Now, that’s all about to change.
Capital change requirements for major banks
Banks that are considered globally systemically important banking organizations (G-SIBs) have a higher capital buffer than community banks as they usually engage in banking activity that is far more complicated than your average market loan.
The list depends on the size of the bank and its underlying activity, according to the Federal Reserve.
Current global systemically important banks
A proposal from U.S. federal banking regulators could drastically reduce the amount that these large banks have to hold in reserve.
Changes would result in the largest U.S. banks holding an average 4.8% less. While that might seem like a small percentage number, for banks of this size, it equates to billions of dollars, according to a Federal Reserve memo.
The proposed changes were a long time coming, Robert Sarama, a financial services leader at PwC, told TheStreet.
“It’s a bit of a recognition that perhaps the pendulum swung a little too far in the higher capital requirement following the financial crisis, making it harder for banks to participate in some markets,” he said.
Natasha Luscri and Luke Miller consider themselves among the lucky ones. The couple recently bought their first home in the northwest suburbs of Melbourne.
It wasn’t something they necessarily expected to be able to do, but some good fortune with an investment in silver bullion and making use of government schemes meant “the stars aligned” to get into the market. Luke used the federal government’s super saver scheme to help build a deposit, and the couple then jumped on the 5 per cent deposit scheme, which they say made all the difference.
“We only started looking because of the government deposit scheme. Basically, we didn’t really think it was possible that we could buy something,” Natasha told Yahoo Finance.
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Last month they settled on their two bedroom unit, which the pair were able to purchase in an off-market sale – something that is becoming increasingly common in the market at the moment.
Rather perfectly, they got it for about $20-30,000 below market rate, Natasha estimated, which meant they were under the $600,000 limit to avoid paying stamp duty under Victoria’s suite of support measures for first home buyers.
“They wanted to sell it quickly. They had no other offers. So we got it for less than what it would have gone for if it had been on market,” Natasha said.
“We didn’t have a lot of cash sitting in an account … I think we just got lucky and made some smart investment decisions which helped.”
It’s a far cry from when the couple couldn’t find a home due to the rental crisis when they were previously living in Adelaide and had to turn to sub-standard options.
“We’ve managed to go from living in a caravan because we were living in Adelaide and we couldn’t find a rental with our dogs … So we’ve gone from living in a caravan, being kind of tertiary homeless essentially because we couldn’t get a rental, to now having been able to purchase our first home,” Natasha explained.
Rate rises beginning to bite for new homeowners
Natasha, 34, and Luke, 45, are among more than 300,000 Australians who have used the 5 per cent deposit scheme to get into the housing market with a much smaller than usual deposit, according to data from Housing Australia at the end of March. However that’s dating back to 2020 when the program first launched, before it was rebranded and significantly expanded in October last year to scrap income or placement caps, along with allowing for higher property price caps.
A year after the US exit from the global health body, WHO officials say finances are secure, for now. But amid donor cuts, rising inflation, and future economic uncertainties, will funding be sufficient to meet its needs?
Earlier this month, senior officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) told journalists in a newly refurbished pressroom at the agency’s headquarters that its finances were “stable”. Following a year that saw its biggest donor withdraw as a member, forcing it to cut 25 per cent of its staff, its financial chief said that 85 per cent of its 2026 and 2027 budget had been financed.
“While we are looking at resource mobilisation, we’re also looking at tightening our belts,” Raul Thomas, assistant director general for business operations and compliance, explained, admitting that the WHO “will have great difficulty mobilising the last 15 per cent”.
Sitting at the centre of the press podium, surrounded by his deputies, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, backed up Thomas’s outlook. “We are stable now and moving forward”, since the retreat of the United States from the health body, he said. The Ethiopian noted that the WHO’s financial reform, allowing for incremental increases in state member fees, has been a big plus.
Mandatory contributions have historically accounted for only a quarter of the organisation’s total funding. States have agreed to raise their contributions by 20 per cent twice, in 2023 and in 2025. Further increments are scheduled to be negotiated in 2027, 2029 and 2031 to bring mandatory funding up to par with voluntary donations that the agency relies on. The WHO also reduced its biennial budget for 2026 and 2027 from $5.3 billion to $4.2bn.
“Our financing actually is better,” Tedros emphasised. “Without the reform, it would have been a problem.”
Read more: Nations agree to raise their WHO fees in wake of US retreat
Nonetheless, the director general, now in his final year at the UN agency, warned that member states should not assume that the financial road ahead will be clear. “The future of WHO will also be defined by how successful we are in terms of the assessed contribution increases or the financial reform in general.”
As west retreats, others step in
Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, explains that every year at the WHO, there’s “a non-stop effort” to ensure funding. She says a continued reliance on non-flexible, voluntary funding earmarked for specific projects, as well as donors withholding contributions – sometimes for political leverage – complicates the organisation’s financial plans. Meanwhile, ongoing cuts and predictions of a global economic downturn stemming from the war in the Middle East may further aggravate the situation, as costs rise and member states focus on national spending needs.
Soaring prices driven by the conflict and supply chain disruptions have already affected the WHO’s procurement of emergency health kits for crises, officials at the global health body said. “We are continuing to negotiate at least from a procurement standpoint on how we can bring down a little bit the prices or reduce the increases, but we are seeing it across the board,” said Thomas.
Altaf Musani, WHO director of health emergencies, meanwhile, said aid cuts have already deprived roughly 53 million people in crisis situations of access to healthcare.
Last month, Thomas told the Association of Accredited Correspondents at the UN at the end of April that the agency is looking at non-traditional, or non-western, donors for funding to close the biennial 15 per cent funding gap. “It’s not that we won’t go to the traditional donors, but we’re expanding that donor base.”
Since the dramatic drop in funding from the US, formerly the WHO’s biggest contributor, Moon highlights that there hadn’t been a “sudden jump by non-traditional states to compensate for the US”. Last May, at the World Health Assembly, China pledged $500 million in voluntary funding until 2030, a sharp rise from the $2.5m it contributed over 2024 and 2025.
The WHO did not respond to questions from Geneva Solutions about how much of the pledged amount had been disbursed. China’s mission in Geneva did not respond to questions raised about the funding.
Other countries, particularly Gulf states, have meanwhile been increasing their voluntary contributions to the organisation in recent years. Similarly to “western liberal democracies have in the past”, Moon explains that they may be seeking “to raise their profile and prioritise health as one of the issues that they would like to be known for”. She noted that the shift in the UN agency’s list of top donors may affect how it manages the money.
‘Sustainable’ spending
Amid these financial uncertainties, WHO executives say the organisation is also reviewing its expenditure through “sustainability plans”. This includes working more closely with collaborating centres, including universities and research institutes that support WHO programmes and are independently funded. On influenza, for example, the WHO works with dozens of national centres around the world, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US,
When asked about any plans for further job cuts, Thomas denied that these were part of the WHO’s current strategies, but could not rule them out entirely as a future possibility. Instead, he said, the organisation was “looking at ways to use funding that may have been for activities to cover salaries in the most important areas”.
Meanwhile, WHO data shows that the number of consultants employed by the agency by the end of 2025 decreased by 23 per cent, slightly less than the staff reductions. Global heath reporter Elaine Fletcher explained to Geneva Solutions that consultants continue to represent a significant proportion of the agency’s workforce, at 5,844 – including an overwhelming number hired in Africa and Southeast Asia – compared with regular staff numbering 8,569 in December.
Upcoming donor politics
The upcoming change in leadership will also be a strategic moment for the organisation to boost its coffers. Moon says the race for the top job at the organisation may attract funding from candidates’ home countries, which could be seen as a strategic opportunity.
Given the relatively small size of the WHO budget, compared to some government or agency accounts, “you don’t have to be the richest country in the world to dangle a few 100 million dollars, which could go a long way in their budget,” the expert notes.
The biggest ongoing challenge, however, will be whether major donors will announce further aid cuts. In the medium and longer term, “countries will have to agree on the step up every two years, and there’s always drama around that.”
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