Overview

After a year of intensive research, our Center has graded all 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) on their efforts to produce financially literate high school graduates (the 50 states and D.C., which is technically not a state, are referred to collectively in this report as “states”).

When it comes to report cards, everyone wants an A. But when the Center finished its grading, only seven states earned an A for the Class of 2023. That’s just a two-state increase since our last report, in 2017, which focused on the Class of 2017. Iowa and Mississippi are the two new additions to this grade A list. Looking at just these two data points would lead one to believe that personal finance education policy is changing nationally at a glacial rate. But the reality is quite different. Change is happening very quickly and will be accelerating dramatically over the next five years. States are so rapidly passing laws and changing regulations that we estimate we will have 23 grade A states for the graduating Class of 2028, or 45% of all states (assuming full implementation of new laws and regulations).

Grade	Class of 2017*	Class of 2023	Projected Class of 2028
Grade A	10% (5 States)	14% (7 States)	45% (23 States)
Grade B	37% (19 States)	41% (21 States)	27% (14 States)
Grade C	24% (12 States)	25% (13 States)	12% (6 States)
Grade D	8% (4 States)	10% (5 States)	8% (4 States)
Grade F	22% (11 States)	10% (5 States)	8% (4 States)

*Does not equal 100% due to rounding.

From the Class of 2017 (our last report) to the Class of 2028, we expect the number of grade A states to increase from five to 23 states. That means that 18 states have already or are expected to move to grade A from grades B, C, D, or F since our last report in 2017, six years ago.

It is important to note that no state that has implemented a stand-alone personal finance course requirement (or its equivalent) has ever reversed course.

It often takes four or five years for a major policy change, like adding a new high school course graduation requirement in personal finance, to be fully implemented statewide. The key takeaway is that the wheels of state policy change are moving decisively forward.

Big Change is Coming Soon

Sixteen states are in the process of implementing policy changes that are projected to increase the number of states requiring a standalone personal finance course as a high school graduation requirement, from seven states for the Class of 2023 to 23 states for the Class of 2028—that’s a whopping increase of 229% in half a decade.

Our Center estimates that when the Class of 2028 graduates, 41 percent of students will reside in a state that requires them to take a standalone course (or its equivalent) in personal finance.

When the Class of 2007 graduated, there were no states that had fully implemented a standalone financial literacy course graduation requirement. During the Great Recession, Utah became the first state to require a standalone course for the Class of 2008. In just two decades, we will have seen this important course go from being required in zero to 23 states—nearly half of the nation.

It is also encouraging that nine states that have moved or will move to grade A were already highly committed to personal finance education and received B grades in our 2017 report. Here is the breakdown of the states projected to move to grade A by 2028 from our 2017 report:

• Nine states that have moved or are projected to move from Grade B to Grade A: Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and West Virginia.
• Six states have moved or are projected to move from Grade C to Grade A: Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Oregon.
• One state is projected to move from Grade D to Grade A: Louisiana.
• Two states are projected to move from Grade F to Grade A: Connecticut and Rhode Island.

We still have much more to do, but the country is definitely moving in the right direction. Our Center estimates that the number of states getting a grade of C, D, or F will drop from 53% in 2017 to 28% in 2028. And by 2028, only four states in the nation are projected to be grade F states: California, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and South Dakota.

The 23 states that received grades C, D, or F for the Class of 2023 are projected to decrease to just 14 states for the Class of 2028. For the Class of 2023, more than half of the states, 55% (28 states), were given grades of A or B. These are grades that you would want your children to bring home from school. The good news is that this group is projected to grow to 73% (37 states) for the Class of 2028. And the 10 states (20%) with grades D or F are projected to drop to eight states (16%) by or before the
Class of 2028.