Is a high school course with personal finance concepts required to be taken as a graduation requirement? No, a specifically identified course with personal finance concepts is not a graduation requirement. See: New Mexico High School Graduation Requirements. However, personal finance must be offered as an elective. The personal finance elective can be offered as a social studies, family and consumer sciences, business, or mathematics elective. See: New Mexico Statute (J (7)).
New Mexico includes a very modest level of personal finance concepts in the economics strand of its social studies standards. See: New Mexico Social Studies Standards. Districts may meet their personal finance elective requirement through an online course offering.
New Mexico is one of only four states that require that personal finance be offered as an elective, which guarantees that all students have access to these topics.
Specific personal finance standards for the required elective course were not on the public education website. It is not clear how New Mexico measures student achievement in financial literacy or how the state monitors local school district implementation of the financial literacy education requirement.