Should Central New York Schools Teach Personal Finance?

The state of Arizona is requiring personal finance to be taught and learned in schools. Now the big question: When does New York State jump in?

When it comes to teaching children about budgets, building a solid credit score, investing and saving, we're failing as a society, both in school and at home. We should even offer SPENDING as a class in school, especially with the advent of digital platforms like Venmo and Bitcoin. Kids are already familiar with VBucks, the monetary system in the video game Fortnite. Maybe New York should start building positive futures for our state and our children IN THE REAL WORLD now.

An article in Market Watch reports the stated goal of Arizona in a nutshell:

To improve financial literacy among graduating students by requiring schools to teach the basics of personal finance prior to graduation.

Finances are every bit as important as Math or English or Physical Education. The refrain "Why do I have to learn this? I'll never use this in the real world" is so popular, it's almost universal. We said it. Our kids have said it. Maybe we should listen, and then act.

More than half of all parents don't even know HOW to teach their kids good financial habits at home. So, why not empower schools to dispense this knowledge in our classrooms?