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Knowing where to begin with personal finance and how to start saving money can be incredibly difficult. That’s why Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of Next Gen Personal Finance, has a mission to ensure that by 2030 every high school student in America will take a full semester of a personal finance course before graduation.
The Minnesota House Education Policy Committee voted at the beginning of April in favor of a bill that would guarantee all Minnesota high schoolers take a one-semester course in personal finance. If the bill is passed, a personal finance course would become a requirement next year for senior high school students to graduate. Ranzetta testified before the committee and said fewer than 1 in 16 students in Minnesota are required to take a personal finance course while in high school.
The course would include topics like learning how to take out loans and recurring debt, how interest works, home mortgages, and how to read a paycheck and understand payroll deductions. Currently, only 10 states guarantee at least one semester course in personal finance before graduation. Ranzetta says Minnesota has the opportunity to become the 11th state so that high school students graduate with the financial skills needed to thrive in the future. “It’s good for students, it’s good for families, it’s good for the state economy,” says Ranzetta.
In 2010, Ranzetta volunteered at a high school in California to create and teach a personal finance program that he built from scratch. After witnessing how impactful the course was, he decided to expand the program to a wider audience. “I assumed that most people were getting this at home. And when I taught this class, I recognized that many students weren't getting it. I said ‘I've got to do something about this because this was a tremendous gift that I got.’” Four years later, Ranzetta joined forces with co-founder Jessica Endlich with the idea that every student should have quality personal finance instruction.
Renzetta says although there is a good portion of teachers in America already teaching personal finance as an elective, not all students are getting taught. Ranzetta and Endlich convinced early adopters who believed in what they were trying to build. “We were writing curriculum, and we just had the good fortune of a lot of really good teachers reaching out to say, ‘Hey, let me give you feedback. Let me tell you what we need to be effective in the classroom,’” says Ranzetta. “We're just going to build what teachers tell us they need.”
Despite concerns regarding how the bill would be implemented and funded, Ranzetta says that if Minnesota passes the bill, NGPF will commit to a no-cost curriculum, no-cost professional development, and up to a $500 stipend, an estimated $300,000, for every teacher who teaches a personal finance course. Ultimately, Ranzetta says it’s not about legislation, but successful implementation. “Ensure teachers feel like they both have the conceptual knowledge as well as they're comfortable with the lessons they're going to be delivering to students.”
