Alabama lawmaker pushing for financial literacy course requirement to graduate high school

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) – The tax deadline for many Individuals is only a few weeks away, however for a lot of younger individuals, understanding taxes, private funds, and loans will be overwhelming.

One Alabama lawmaker hopes to vary that with a brand new invoice supposed to coach teenagers about managing cash.

Home Invoice 164 would require public college college students to finish a private finance literacy course earlier than they’ll graduate from highschool. In brief, it could make studying easy methods to handle your cash obligatory.

Home Consultant Andy Whitt says he labored on this invoice for 2 years. He was within the monetary business for many years and says 88% of Individuals really feel they weren’t taught sufficient about monetary literacy in class.

Rep. Whitt says extra younger individuals don’t perceive how banks work, or loans, checks, and taxes. He needs to verify college students are studying cash administration, one thing they’ll must know after they get out of faculty.

“When you dig your self right into a gap, as many individuals notice as soon as they begin down that path of excessive rates of interest and perhaps just a little little bit of overdue and unable to save lots of for wet days, it’s affected them all through their life,” mentioned Rep. Whitt. “So we wish to make it possible for we catch them on the entrance finish and train them the skillsets they must be profitable.”

Whitt says this can be a bi-partisan effort, including a number of the subjects that might be coated embody: opening and managing a checking account, balancing your accounts, and understanding loans and contracts.

To learn the invoice in its entirety, click on right here.

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