Florida Financial Literacy Bill: The Quick Rundown
Giving you A rundown of Florida financial literacy and When the bill will go into effect
As we talk about constantly, we believe most people today don’t get the proper financial literacy training to be able to live the life they want to live. What’s more, we also believe a lot of what is being taught today around what people “should” do is either too narrow or wrong and believe that each of us will decide to use money as a tool differently in our lives.
As we have written about in a prior post, to illustrate this view, in the United States the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) regularly issues a five-question test as part of its National Financial Capability Study; the test measures basic financial literacy knowledge of people all over the country.
Study participants are asked five questions covering aspects of economics and finance encountered in everyday life, such as compound interest, inflation, principles relating to risk and diversification, the relationship between bond prices and interest rates, and the impact that a shorter term can have on total interest payments over the life of a mortgage. On the most recent test given (here), only 34% of those who took the quiz got four or five questions correct.
And so this post strikes near and dear to us at Future Funders as Florida is the company’s home base and we think this bill couldn’t come at a better time. If you are not in Florida, realize that financial literacy programs (slowly!) are becoming enacted throughout the country so hopefully your state already has one or it is coming soon. To find out if your state is one of the 14 that currently has a financial literacy requirement for high school click here.
What is the Florida Financial Literacy Bill?
The Florida Senate Bill 1054, also known as the Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act, was first introduced in November 2021 and signed into law by governor Ron DeSantis on March 22, 2022. The bill is names after Senator Dorothy Hukill, who spent her career advocating for financial literacy education in Florida schools. It requires high school students in Florida to take a stand-alone personal finance course before graduating.
What is the timing of the bill?
There will now be some time before the bill actually gets implemented. It will officially go into affect at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year and won’t affect students currently in high school (ie. the graduating class of 2027 is the first class that will have to meet this requirement).
What is the requirement of the bill?
The Financial Literacy Act will require a high school student to take a half credit in personal finance before they graduate. The way it will work is that school districts must design electives to helps students in their respective areas of interests such as electives with a STEM or liberal arts focus (the electives must also include opportunities to earn college credit).
A student entering grade 9 before the 2023-2024 school year now must earn eight credits in electives. A student entering grade 9 in the 2023-2024 school year or thereafter must earn seven and one-half credits in electives with the final half credit to be reserved for financial literacy.
What exactly is the financial literacy requirement?
The Financial Literacy act is very specific around which topics should be taught to kids as part of this financial literacy course. They settled on 13 topics in which each student must have strong knowledge and be well versed in. Those topics are:
Types of bank accounts offered, opening and managing a bank account, and assessing the quality of a depository institution’s services.
Balancing a checkbook.
Basic principles of money management, such as spending, credit, credit scores, and managing debt, including retail and credit card debt.
Completing a loan application.
Receiving an inheritance and related implications.
Basic principles of personal insurance policies.
Computing federal income taxes.
Local tax assessments.
Computing interest rates by various mechanisms.
Simple contracts.
Contesting an incorrect billing statement.
Types of savings and investments.
State and federal laws concerning finance.
Where to find more information?
While the exact curriculum is still being worked out, in our next post the 13 topics above will be the focus of the bill. Each of these topics is important to learn and the curriculum can take many forms, but as a form of cliff notes, here are 13 good videos or short articles that we have found which we hope can serve as cliff’s notes for each topic your kids will learn about.
Types of bank accounts offered, opening and managing a bank account, and assessing the quality of a depository institution’s services.
Completing a loan application. Vague topic, we offer info on the three most common likely to face our kids: Federal Student Loans, car loans, home loans
Basic principles of personal insurance policies. Two short videos here help explain how insurance works, and explain personal life insurance options
Computing federal income taxes (this one is a bit longer but still good)
State and federal laws concerning finance. Vague topic, but a few videos we think might help are one on how the The Federal Reserve and Other Agencies monitor banks.
