Hawai`i is the most expensive state to live in the United States. We all know that. Discussions are held regularly on how to address the issue, with lots of current legislative rightfully focused right now on how to help local people most in need.
So knowing that we have an on-going dilemma here based on numerous factors that are discussed incessantly, wouldn’t it make sense to do a better job educating students about economic realities, opportunities, potential pitfalls, and necessities?
According to the Council for Economic Education, 25 states in this country “… require students to take a course in economics to graduate”. Ohio and Nebraska became the most recent states to see the light, as bi-partisan efforts there helped to ensure that students moving on to college or into the real (working) world will now learn the how to help get one’s financial house in order at an early age.
Some of us might reminisce and say about a bevy of topics: “…if I only knew that when I was 18…”; being taught how to utilize one’s earnings, enhance one’s retirement nest egg, avoid overspending and capitalize on proven economic principles at an early age might really have been helpful.
Our overworked state Department of Education provides some direction, standards, and resources, and local banks, credit unions, and financial analysts have wonderful tools to help anyone understand the ABCs of personal economics, but mandating a high school course would go a long way toward relieving some of the angst and future money issues encountered by almost everyone, including ALICE (Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed) families and those in poverty locally.
It’ll take a concerted, public-private effort to help fund this education and the educators needed to pull it off, but we are long past merely considering such a concept. Again, we are the most expensive place to live in America, and that’s not likely to change soon. So being better prepared and economically aware such that you might make smarter fiscal choices early in your working years seems like a bipartisan concept everyone can get behind.
We teach kids about personal hygiene and other vital issues yet, perhaps ironically, the lack of any school-mandated, personal finance education could lead to future personal ailments- physical, fiscal, and mental. Perhaps 2023 will be the year we move forward, because we literally can’t afford to continue ignoring our economic illiteracy.
Think about it…