25.

According to CNBC, that’s the number of states currently requiring some form of personal finance or financial literacy course in high school. Schools have always required mostly the same course list: math, english, science, and social sciences, such as history. But why doesn’t personal finance, a class that would prove useful for many student’s futures, make the list? 

Financial literacy is an important skill for teenagers in the United States today to learn. It’s a big issue because financial literacy is key for surviving as an adult. As an adult, you have to pay taxes and if you have a job, you need to know what to do with your money so that you can live the life you want. Depending on their line of work, many students do not actively use much of the information they learn in school in their everyday adult lives. Personal Finance teaches math as many other subjects, but it’s useful math. It makes math a lot more interesting. When it’s your money you are dealing with, you tend to pay attention. 

“I love that Gulliver can offer a personal finance class because sometimes I don’t understand the math taught in my normal math class,” said senior Nicholas Blackburn. “But with this personal finance course, I can finally understand math because it’s taught in the language of money which is engaging to me.”

Clearly, there are many problems with our education system today, but implementing personal finance classes could be the right step into improving the system.