Research · Issue area · Financial Education
Financial Education
About 30 states now require high-school students to take a personal-finance course, and the states with the strongest requirements alone are projected to need about 37,000 highly trained personal-finance teachers by 2031. Who teaches these courses, how are they prepared, and what makes financial education effective?
Research on how personal-finance education is taught, who teaches it, and what helps students and adults make better financial decisions.
About this issue area
Personal-finance education has moved from elective to requirement. About 30 states now require a standalone personal-finance course for high-school graduation, which, once fully in effect, will cover about three-quarters of U.S. public high-school students (Next Gen Personal Finance, 2026). The Center for Financial Literacy's 2026 national report card projects that the states graded A or B alone will need about 37,000 highly trained personal-finance teachers by 2031 (National Endowment for Financial Education, 2026).
States have answered the staffing question in very different ways. No state requires a personal-finance-specific teaching license. Eighteen require a license in a related field such as business or economics, and three require training in the subject (Hedger, 2025).
Research questions in this area include: how states and districts staff required personal-finance courses; how teacher preparation relates to what students learn; and how adult financial education and counseling reach the people who need them.
Plain-language explainer
What this means for you
Most states now require teenagers to learn personal finance before they graduate. That is a real commitment. But the teacher in front of the class may have been assigned the course with little preparation in the subject, and the materials may not reflect the financial products students will actually face.
Our research looks at who teaches personal finance, how they are prepared, and what makes the difference for students and adults. The Institute is also preparing a free personal-finance textbook for high schools. Your support funds the evidence that helps schools and communities get financial education right.
Forthcoming outputs
- — Study of how personal-finance teachers are prepared across states (in development)
- — Free personal-finance textbook for high schools (in preparation)
Policy audiences for this work
- State Departments of Education with personal-finance graduation requirements
- State boards of education and educator-licensing bodies
- U.S. Department of Education
- Financial Literacy and Education Commission
- National Endowment for Financial Education
- Council for Economic Education
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