SF high schoolers ahead of state’s financial-literacy curve

San Francisco high schools are a few years ahead of the state’s financial-literacy curve.

The City’s high schools have offered personal-finance courses for three years, well before California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation late last month requiring financial literacy to graduate beginning with the class of 2031. Assembly Bill 2927 requires all high schools to offer a standalone, semesterlong personal-finance course by 2027.

Palo Alto-based nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance, which led the push to require such classes, has partnered with the state to offer finance courses in California public schools, including The City’s high schools.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond underscored the importance of the legislation and financial literacy to “empower students and uplift communities.” In a statement, he said these courses give “young people the tools to understand and improve their own economic situation by managing their money [and] growing their wealth.”

Students across the state will soon learn how to create household budgets, balance checkbooks and invest, and they’ll learn the importance of a healthy credit score. Meanwhile, San Francisco schools are already introducing these skills to students.

District officials said there was interest from teachers and the community to offer personal-finance education well before the legislation. In the last two years, more economics and math teachers have integrated financial-literacy lessons into their curriculua.

Last year, SFUSD was the first school district in California to apply for and receive a grant that awarded the district $130,000 through 2025 to prepare educators to integrate financial-literacy curriculum in high schools.

“The need to provide financial literacy is pertinent in today’s times, especially for students and families who are historically further from opportunity,” SFUSD Superintendent Matt Wayne said in a statement.

According to district data, 61% of SFUSD students taking financial-literacy courses identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged, and 69% of students identified as first-generation college bound. In 2022, nearly all of those students filled out financial-aid applications for college and applied to four-year schools.

In addition to basic household finance-management skills, the new law aims to ensure high-school students understand how to pay for college and how to manage debt associated with student loans.

Student-loan debt is now the second-largest source of household debt after mortgages nationally, and California college students — especially Black and brown students from poor socioeconomic backgrounds — incur student-loan debt at a higher rate than students from other states.

Excess student loan debt presents challenges for first-time homebuyers. A national survey research by the Education Trust found that more than four in 10 Black student-loan borrowers put off purchasing home due to their student-loan debts.

That’s why teaching financial literacy to students is an equity matter, said AVID programs manager Ben Solomon. SFUSD’s AVID program is offered in 18 middle and high schools, serving approximately 2,000 students annually.

“For decades in education, we’ve talked about the challenges faced by first-generation college students,” he said. “What we’re starting to be more aware of now is that many of these same students go on to become first-time homebuyers, first-time loan-seekers, first-time investors, [and] first-time budgeters.”

Each of those avenues presents “another opportunity to be derailed,” he said, “unless these students have been sufficiently prepared to navigate each of these systems.”

Emily Selekman, AVID coordinator at George Washington High School, said that “by introducing financial literacy in high school, we are giving our students the chance to make choices in their current lives and economic situations that could positively impact their future.”

The high school’s math department also wrote a financial-literacy course that was just approved by the University of California last month, district officials said.

Beyond financial literacy, such courses also encourage students to apply core subjects, like math, to real-life situations, said Robert Coverdell, a teacher at SFUSD’s Downtown High School.

“It got students thinking about savings plans, opening a bank and long-term investments accounts,” he said.