Indianapolis, Indiana – Hoosier high school students will need to pass a financial literacy course in order to graduate under a new state law.
The 2028 graduating class will be subject to the requirement under Senate Enrolled Act 35. Given that many schools currently only offer the course as an optional, this means that they will need to make some changes.
“I’ve worked with multiple generations of people – I see the level of knowledge kind of decreasing,” said State Sen. Mike Gaskill, (R-Pendleton), who introduced the legislation.
Gaskill is employed at a financial services company.
“If you don’t have the knowledge that you need, it’s easy for others to take advantage of you and not do what’s best for you,” he said.
The course will cover a variety of subjects, including managing debt, paying taxes, and retirement savings.
“I felt that there was enough material to justify being a standalone course, and I wanted to emphasize the importance,” Gaskill said.
For some students, the law permits the course to contribute toward other graduation requirements, like math.
Schools must now begin planning for every student to enroll in the course.
“I feel like it’s very much needed,” said Jarrod Mason, principal at Hamilton Heights High School. “It’s just how are we going to make that happen? Because for some people, it’s going to be pretty easy. And for others, it’s going to be really difficult.”
According to him, schools like his would need to think about the necessary textbooks and other materials in addition to the teaching team.
In the current state budget, lawmakers did boost K–12 tuition assistance, but they did not set aside money explicitly for the new course.
“We have a two-member business department right now,” Mason said. “We’ll have to look at how we add people to make that happen.”
State education authorities have not yet provided additional instructions to schools regarding how the course may be used to satisfy other graduation requirements.
