By Uy Pham
High school students in California will now have to take a semester-long financial literacy course as part of the state’s graduation requirements. The approval of Assembly Bill 2927 (AB 2927), which passed both chambers of the state legislature and received Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature in late June, will make California the 26th state to require a financial literacy course to graduate high school.
According to AB 2927, high schools must begin offering the course in the 2027-2028 school year, with students in the 2031 graduating class being the first needing to complete the new requirements.
Students must fulfill the requirement by taking a separate, stand-alone one-semester course in personal finance. The course does not change the current requirements for graduation, which already includes a semester-long course in economics. However, according to the bill, students may elect to be exempt from the economics course requirement if they complete the stand-alone course in personal finance.
The requirements for the course, which will be developed by local educational agencies in conjunction with state officials, shall consider topics such as fundamentals of banking, types of loans and insurance, managing credit scores and investment.
This marks the second change to the high school graduation requirements in California in recent years, with the state enacting a law that added a semester-long ethnic studies course to the requirements in 2021 via AB 101. The ethnic studies courses must be offered in high schools beginning next school year, with the requirement in effect starting with the Class of 2029.
Options for ethnic studies course offerings are in the developmental stages at the district level. Meanwhile, per Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction Brian Clark, the Huntington Beach Union High School District has already adopted a financial literacy course; however, Baron Banner could not confirm if the course is currently offered.
“[We] ask how schools plan to include many of these new course mandates into already full schedules,” Clark said. “It should definitely be asked if Sacramento understands the burden this places on local districts to come up with solutions.”
It remains to be determined how both courses will be incorporated into Fountain Valley High School students’ schedules, but discussions are in progress districtwide.
“I believe there would be a good amount of students interested in taking the course to feel more confident [with] big financial decisions,” senior Nasa Cao said. “I think what would help prevent scheduling difficulties [with several semester-long courses] is offering them over the summer, or asynchronously, but then again, the content of the course would resonate less with students if they learned it anything other than in-person.”
