BURLINGTON – In six short years, 73% of high school graduates from 30 states will have to take a semester-long personal finance course that covers the subject thoroughly to graduate.
After high school, these financially literate young people will use their personal finance education every day of their lives. They will have the tools and knowledge to manage their money: how to earn it, spend it and save it.
Without regulatory or legislative action, Vermont students won’t be among these fortunate 11 million high school students, because, unlike them, they will NOT be required to take this course. And that will be a shame.
To thrive in this increasingly complex financial world, young people will need to budget and manage their income carefully. They must understand compound interest, and how not to misuse credit.
They must be knowledgeable about rents, mortgages, savings, investments, and insurance. They will have to deal with new financial products like crypto, online investing, peer-to-peer payment methods, buy-now-pay-later programs, and other new financial technology products.
They also will face attempts at identity theft and other fraud schemes from numerous online sources, including social media, texts, email, and websites. A July 2025 Pew Research Center survey indicates that about one-quarter of 18 to 29 year olds say they’ve lost money in this way, compared with 15% of those 65 and older.
Without such a critical high school course, will Vermont’s high school graduates be unprepared to handle financial independence? Will they be left behind by their peers in other states?
Vermont students are supposed to be getting this education, as their high schools are required to provide personal finance instruction consistent with national standards adopted by the Vermont State Board of Education in 2018.
But a March 2025 report issued by Next Gen Personal Finance indicates that only one out of five high school students in our state graduate from a high school that requires students to take a personal finance course prior to graduation.
This report and other studies show that if personal finance education is left to local control, the wealthiest and least diverse school districts are much more likely to require a standalone course than districts educating those students who need personal finance education the most.
Vermont’s 52 supervisory unions currently decide what their graduation standards should be, but this balkanized approach to what a Vermont high school diploma means is about to change.
Beginning with the graduating class of 2031, the recently passed education reform bill, Act 73, requires the Secretary of Education and the State Board of Education to create statewide graduation standards for Vermont.
This is a golden opportunity for Vermont to include a guarantee that every one of the 6,000 students who graduate from public high schools annually will take a substantive standalone course in personal finance.
Numerous studies show that this education improves students financial capability by reducing credit defaults, increasing credit scores and improved management of college student loans. Studies also show that a full-semester course works much better than embedding these topics into other high school courses.
Contrast what’s not happening in Vermont with how Utah handles this high school subject.
Utah has long led the nation in personal finance instruction. In 2003, the legislature passed the nation’s first bill requiring high school students to complete a standalone financial literacy course. The Class of 2008 was the first to graduate under that mandate.
Two decades later, teachers, administrators and community partners continue to strengthen and improve financial education in Utah schools, preparing students with the knowledge and skills to budget, invest and manage credit with confidence. The state even established a Financial Education Hall of Fame in 2024 to spotlight leaders whose work transforms student lives, giving them life-changing skills.
Looking back at my own education growing up in Massachusetts, I can’t say that I often used algebra or pre-calculus concepts. But had I been able to study personal finance, I know I would have been using that knowledge every day. I was fortunate to learn what I needed to know about money after high school, but not everyone has access to these opportunities.
Moreover, this 2024 Tyton Partners study shows that the national average lifetime benefit of taking a personal finance course in high school is $100,000 and is estimated to be $94,000 in Vermont.
In response, the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy has Created a free online, on-demand personal finance training program that is open to all Vermonters, despite being geared toward educators. This program, the Vermont Financial Literacy Virtual Academy is available from October 1 to January 31, 2026. We also completed a film, “Will Vermont Students be Left Behind?,” that anyone can access. The film reviews the state of personal finance education today and we hope it can change minds and spur regulatory action.
Next spring, the Center for Financial Literacy will issue its sixth nation report card on the states, in terms of how each state performs in personal finance education. You can read the Center’s 2023 Report Card and 2025 Interim Report Card on our website. It is my fervent hope that in a future report Vermont will be moving up from its C grade in previous report cards to the A grade our young people need and deserve.
John Pelletier is director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College.
