1. Should High School Have Financial Classes?
Zach Atchison, Alex Laurin, Jake Klinck, Jarrod Britton
ARC-5th
18 Dec. 2013

2. Introduction Students graduate without knowledge of personal finances
Taxes, get student loans, apply for mortgages, balance a checkbook, and budget an account
Its the School’s Job
Students need to know such things before they use them

3. Introduction
84% of students would like to take a personal finance class (Bortz)
Students would also rather take a class and learn now than later (Bortz)

4. Research Questions Why is this not taught in economics?
Why are classes like these not required?
Does Grand Blanc offer classes like these?
If Grand Blanc offers classes like these, what is the general curriculum?

5. Research
The Tartan
25% of teenagers do not know how to do basic finances
Students don’t know how to do balance a checkbook or correctly use a credit card
Interview with Mr. Belcher
Already required to take so many courses
Health, gym, class of 2016 takes 2 years of foreign language, computer credit

6. Research Learning how to apply for financial aid could be very useful.
Taxes are done by professionals
Interview with Mr. Hentes
GB offers life management and accounting
Accounting deals with numbers
Life management deals with balancing finances, future planning, time management
Not part of econ because it is more micro rather than macro.

7. Research “Why High Schoolers don’t know how to manage their money.”
Only 13 states have passed laws requiring students to take finance classes
Mastercard says 64% of parents are worried about the decisions their college bound kids make
The problem is new, possibly has been buried under all the existing ones
Possibly should be taught before high school

8. Our Survey We gave this survey to 20 high school graduates
How helpful do you think a personal management class in high school would have been for your transition into adulthood? These types of classes include learning how to do your taxes, applying for financial aid for college, and to apply for loans. Make a mark next to one of the choices below:
Very helpful ____ 10
Somewhat helpful ____ 9
Neutral ____ 1
Not at all helpful ___ 0

9. Results Half of the participants would have found it beneficial
None said that it would be a waste
Obviously would be a good class to have

10. Our Other Survey
We also surveyed 45 students with a different question
Have you taken any of these classes below? Circle all that apply.
Life management
Accounting (any at all)
Do you feel prepared to go into the world and do adult things such as:
Circle all that apply:
Doing your taxes
Applying for financial aid for college
Applying for loans
Balance a checkbook
Budget your money

11. Graphs

12. Results 38 students did not take a financial class
25 students did only knew how to perform one or none of the financial tasks listed
Correlation between the amount of finance classes students took and the number of items they would be able to perform
2 students took both classes and 2 students knew how to perform all five tasks

13. Conclusion Obviously this is a problem
56% of students surveyed knew how to perform one item or no items
Based on all our research students do not know how to do finances
Consequences
Timely to figure all of it out
Debt
Bankrupt
Repossessions

14. Recommendations Create a class that teaches how to:
get student loans, apply for mortgages, balance a checkbook, and budget an account
1 semester class
Its is not expected that the class would be required initially
Over time administrators should notice how helpful it is
Maybe it should be taught earlier than high school (Bortz)

15. Works Cited Belcher, Chris. Personal interview. 4 Dec. 2013.
Bortz, Daniel. "Why Most High Schoolers Don't Know How to Manage Their Money."US News RSS. US News RSS, 9 Oct Web. 08 Dec
Hentes, John. Personal interview. 4 Dec
"High School Students Must Be Taught Basic Finances." The Tartan Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec