We talk about advocacy quite a bit at Next Gen Personal Finance. We come to work every day with the aspiration that all students leave high school with the financial skills they need to thrive in the future. Read any parent and student surveys and you will quickly realize how much support exists behind this idea:

• Nearly 90% of parents and teachers believe that financial education should be taught in schools ((Time)
• 83% of students want financial education in schools (EverFi)

As you ponder those survey results, think about how often parents and teens can agree on anything? Yet despite this consensus among parents, teens and teachers alike, progress has been slow because let's face it, change is difficult. This might explain why in our "Access to Financial Education Report" we found that only 1 in 6 students attends a high school that requires a personal finance for graduation. So, how do we get from here to there? It's starts in your cIassroom.

I like this short phrase to keep me centered: "Control the controllables." As a personal finance teacher, you actually control quite a bit. You control the daily diet of financial education that your students receive several times a week. You control the methods you utilize to engage your students, which is informed by your years of experience and your judgment of what works. You control how much importance to place on each unit in your curriculum and the time students spend learning how to establish credit, pay for college, develop career interests, manage bank accounts and the myriad other topics you cover.

You've spent the summer fine-tuning your curriculum and as you begin this new school year, think about how you control the answer to this question:

How do you plan to make personal finance the most popular course at your school THIS YEAR?

Ultimately this is the best strategy to increase access to financial education. Better than meeting with parents, admins, boards, state houses or federal commissions.  When students tell other students about the magic happening in your classroom, when students are signing up in droves for your elective, when parents talk among themselves about how their kids are better prepared for the future...well it's hard to  stop this momentum. 

The team at NGPF feels privileged to partner with you to make your personal finance course the most popular course at your school! Please let us know how we can support you. 

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.