Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? Yes, Maine requires students to take two years of social studies and history, including American history, government, civics and personal finance. These subjects may be provided to students in a separate or integrated study basis. See: Maine High School Graduation Requirements (see 2B).
Local school districts determine whether to teach personal finance as a separate course or to integrate the topic into other courses. Local school districts can offer students multiple pathways to meet the personal finance requirement, and such options can include courses that are not social studies in nature. Instruction hours cannot be estimated since each school district selects how it will meet the personal finance education requirement. In 2013, a law was passed requiring the Commissioner of Education to review the standards for personal finance during the next five-year review process, starting in the 2015-2016 school year; however, according to the Maine Department of Education, that process has been delayed. See: Maine Assessments and Proficiency Requirements (section 4).
Maine provides national prototypes of personal finance education standards from the Council for Economic Education and the Jump$tart Coalition for local school districts and educators to use. See: Maine's National Social Studies Standards and Framework. Maine makes a range of nationally recognized financial literacy resources available to educators. See: Maine Financial Literacy Resources.
It is not clear how Maine measures student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the financial literacy education requirement. As a result of the state's movement toward proficiency-based graduation requirements, the Maine law requiring personal finance concepts be taught as a graduation requirement is scheduled to be repealed on July 1, 2020. As long as the Board of Education (BOE) and the Department of Education (DOE) continue to require that robust financial literacy topics be taught to all high school students in Maine, the state's grade in the Report Card should not change in the future. However, in the absence of a clear legislative mandate, the DOE and BOE could decide in the future to eliminate the required high school personal finance education at any time, without legislative approval or input. See: Maine Law Repealing Graduation Requirements.