UPDATE: Can financial literacy add up to math gains? (2024)

News Brief

Tuesday October 10, 2023 10:43 am

In a high school class, Bryan Martinez ranks purchases that demand a savings plan: shoes, phone, headphones, and clothes. His medium-term financial goals take more thought, but he settles on a car and vacations. Peering into his future, the 18-year-old has more ambitious goals. He wants to buy a house, start his own business, retire, and provide any future children with a college fund.

The Washington, D.C., school Martinez attends may be a pioneer in financial education, but in recent years, others have followed suit, as AP reported. Since 2020, nine U.S. states have adopted laws or policies requiring personal finance education before students graduate from high school, bringing the total number to 30 states, according to the Council for Economic Education.

The push comes as educators scramble to bolster students’ math skills, which plummeted during the pandemic.At the same time, a rampant dislike for math remains a key obstacle among the young.

Do topics like interest rates translate to higher interest among students? Tonica Tatum-Gormes, who teaches the course, says yes. She attributes better student engagement to them seeing the connection between math and their financial future.

Students begin to understand that “yes, I need to learn decimals, and I need to learn fractions, and I need to learn percentages because I have to manage my money and I have to take out a loan,” Tatum-Gormes says, as AP reported.

Personal finance class could pay dividends if students learn how to make wiser money decisions and avoid financial hazards, experts say. They may also develop an interest in math because of its practical applications to issues such as student loans and credit card debt.

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