The following post is one in a series of inspiring stories from NGPF's Gold Standard Challenge Grant Program which incentivizes high schools and districts to commit to ALL students taking personal finance courses before graduation. Learn more, and apply for your $2,500 to $30,000 Gold Standard Challenge Grant before the August 31, 2022 deadline here.

About Today's Guest Author

Elizabeth Mosley is an educator at David W. Butler High School in Matthews, North Carolina. Their schools are the 102nd-133rd recipients of the Gold Standard Challenge grant. Here is Elizabeth describing David W. Butler’s journey to the Gold Standard.

Describe a rough timeline for how you and/or your colleagues were able to advocate for personal finance to become a graduation requirement in your school/district. How long did it take? What were the major progress milestones?

Our state enacted a change to graduation requirements to include a course on personal finance without significant resistance. Students in our state have had to take a course that combined Civics and Economics for many years. The standards for this combined course expanded several years ago to include some personal finance topics, but we did not have a stand-alone course. House Bill 924 was passed in July 2019, mandating the development of a stand-alone course to teach financial literacy, which would be required for graduation. The curriculum was approved on June 4, 2020.

What challenges did you encounter in your efforts to make personal finance a graduation requirement, and what solutions did you find for these challenges?

Previously, graduation requirements in our state required four social studies credits: World History, Civics and Economics, American History 1, and American History 2. The newly adopted graduation requirements will now require World History, Civic Literacy, American History, and Economics and Personal Finance. Some stakeholders opposed this change as it reduced the amount of coursework required in American history. When advocates of the new personal literacy course pointed out that 47 of the other states only require one course in American history, and that by making this change, we are actually bringing the state more in line with national standards, many opponents were quieted.

What/who were the "catalysts for change" that allowed your efforts to be successful?

The North Carolina Council for Economic Education has been a powerful advocate for improving economics education in our state.

Which stakeholders (students, parents, admin, business leaders, school board, etc) were helpful partners in your quest to make the graduation requirement happen?

The North Carolina Council for Economic Education has been a powerful advocate for improving economics education in our state. North Carolina state representative Craig Horn helped champion the new finance course.

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