Do Kentuckians Participate in Financial Education?
Kentucky has a 13% participation rate in financial literacy education for individuals 18 and older. Statistics like this continue to make the case for the need for a financial education mandate like 2018 KY HB 132, as well as 2019 KY HB 139 that established the Kentucky Financial Empowerment Commission. This work ensures that improving the financial literacy of all groups is prioritized.
The Survey of the States (2020) is conducted every two years by the Council for Economic Education. This study found 21 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance, an increase of 4 states since 2018. Another resource that outlines which states have a financial literacy mandate is Christina Stoddard and Carly Urban’s 2018 research, “The Effects of State Mandated Financial Education on College Financing Behaviors.”
Making the Grade (2017) assigns a letter grade to each state dependent upon the quality of their financial education mandate. While this report is four years old, it assigns four states with an ‘A’ grade or better. Additionally, Next Gen Personal Finance outlines seven states that have or are implementing statewide guarantees for a stand-alone personal finance course for all high school students.
Champlain and Next Gen Personal Finance overlap on their rating of Utah, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama. These organizations rate these states highly because the states require the student to take a stand-alone course in personal finance.
Even with requirements, where are states’ participation rates in financial literacy education? Using data from the 2018 FINRA National Financial Capability Study, the following graph shows the participation rate in financial education.
It is important to keep in mind how recall bias and age may affect this data. However, there is still a lot of work to do, especially when the states with the best financial education policy have low participation rates.
If you’d like to help with this work, please reach out. We want to add to our Financial Empowerment Coalition and increase our efforts in the state.
