4 in 5 Wish They Had Access When in School
DENVER—A large majority of U.S. adults continue to endorse the need for financial education curricula in high schools, according to new nationwide opinion polling from the National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®). The latest polling shows that 83% of respondents say the state they live in should require a semester- or year-long course focused on personal finance as a graduation requirement, while 82% of respondents who attended high school say they wish they were required to complete a personal finance class while they were in school. These results are consistent with polling NEFE conducted three years ago on this same topic and as state legislatures across the country continue to consider bills on these course requirements.
“For several years, NEFE has examined the demand, need and benefits of requiring financial education in high schools from multiple perspectives, including those who either lacked access or chose not to participate in such classes or programs. Hearing from people who missed out on this education has helped spark action that is paving the way toward meaningful change. This latest poll reinforces long-standing support for financial education, with four out of five U.S. adults agreeing on its importance. These sentiments are a testament to the 27 states that have committed to requiring and implementing financial education curricula, thereby empowering today’s students with the knowledge many adults wish they had received while in school.
--Billy Hensley, Ph.D., president and CEO of NEFE
NEFE, in conjunction with SurveyUSA, polled U.S. adults on their viewpoints of financial education curricula, including its importance, current sources for financial education advice, the priority of topics and what type of financial products they use. The following results outline a call for access to quality financial education that will make an impact on students:
- 83% of respondents say their state should require a semester- or year-long course focused on personal finance for high school graduation.
- 82% of those who attended high school say they wish they were required to complete a personal finance class.
- 61% say their high school did not offer a personal finance class.
- Respondents gave a broad range of opinions on which topic areas (e.g., spending and budgeting, savings, earning income, managing credit, etc.) are the most important to teach in a personal finance class, with no single choice selected by more than 65% of respondents.
- Respondents also had a wide range of resources where they currently get financial advice, with no single resource being selected by at least half of respondents.
Notable data points from the poll include:
- The age range of respondents who say their school did not offer a personal finance class spans from a low of 44% (18 to 34-year-olds) to a high of 77% (65+-year-olds).
- 79% of those who attended high school and did not take a financial education class, despite being offered as an elective, say that they wish they had been required to take the course to graduate.
- At 65%, spending and budgeting is the most popular choice among the curricula topics, with 79% of retirees selecting this response.
- Respondents are more likely to ask for financial advice from family members (45%) than financial professionals (27%).
- 91% of respondents who attended high school and earn >$100,000 wish they had been required to take a personal finance course.
- 14% of respondents own cryptocurrency.
NEFE asked these questions to a similar sample of U.S. adults in a March 2022 poll, when only 13 states had passed high school financial education requirements. In that poll, 88% of respondents said their state should require a semester- or year-long financial education course for graduation, and 80% said they wish they were required to take a semester- or year-long financial education course during high school. By the end of 2022, the number of states passing a requirement increased to 17, and as of April 2025, the total is 27 states. Many of these states are beginning the implementation phase to determine how to effectively provide curricula to their communities. NEFE has developed several position papers on this topic with best practices for accomplishing this.
“We should commend states that have passed K-12 financial education requirements for their vision and effort, but passing legislation is just the start,” Hensley says. “The real challenge lies in implementing and overcoming the many barriers to effective and inclusive delivery. This is where the hard work begins for policymakers, educators and other stakeholders. Through collaboration, we can make these initiatives successful.”
Visit the NEFE website for more on this poll.
SurveyUSA Full Methodology
SurveyUSA interviewed 800 U.S. adults online March 3-5, 2025, using a nonprobability sample of adult online panelists chosen randomly by Lucid Holdings, LLC, of New Orleans. The pool of adult respondents was weighted to U.S. Census ACS targets for gender, age, race, education, geography and home ownership, and to recalled 2024 presidential vote. The results contain oversamples of respondents in the states of New York, Washington and Maine, who were oversampled by factors of 1.15x, 2.7x and 17.7x respectively, so that the 800 total respondents contained no fewer than 50 from each of those three states. This report then down-weights the respondents from those three states to their proportional share of the country, so that the results from those three “focus states” have greater fidelity.