BILL NUMBER: S95
SPONSOR: COMRIE
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to establishing a
requirement that instruction in financial education be provided to all
pupils in grades nine, ten, eleven or twelve
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
This bill will require financial literacy instruction to high school
students at any time during their high school tenure, developed and
maintained by the district's board.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section 1 Adds a new section 803-b to the education law to require high
school students have financial education integrated into their curricula
for high school students, including personal finance, budgeting, under-
standing income and property tax systems, personal and insurance poli-
cies and commercial finance.
Section 2 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
The present times have shown that young adults, more and more, are being
required to be more financially independent in their daily lives. By the
time they leave high school and go to college, many teens already have a
job, pay taxes, have a checking account, a credit card, and some level
of debt. At the same time of this expanding responsibility, there has
not been an increase in the knowledge about finance issues among these
young adults. They may have a checking account and credit card, but do
not fully understand the implications of using both, or even the process
that these financing mechanisms involve. Often, when asked what a credit
card does, many teens respond that the card offers free money with which
to make purchases, not realizing that it is actually a loan at a high
level of interest. By integrating a more detailed financial education
into the high school curricula (either in existing classes or by creat-
ing new ones), students will be better equipped to understand how to
maintain a personal budget, manage debt, and realize the mechanics and
implications of collection and uses of various kinds of taxes.
 
AMENDED VERSION:
Amended to include information on recognizing the basic information of
personal insurance policies
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2023-2024: S4601 Comrie/A8216A Berger
2021-2022: S5820 Comrie/A731 Rosenthal D
2019-2020: S2542 Comrie/A1357 Rosenthal D
2018: S8198 Comrie/ A9752 Rosenthal D
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the one hundred twentieth day after it
shall have become a law.