Colorado bill would make financial literacy course a requirement for high school graduation across state

Some Colorado lawmakers want financial literacy to be a requirement for high school graduation. Only about 25% of Colorado school districts require a personal finance course to graduate, according to the Colorado Department of Education. Denver Public Schools is one of the districts.

West High School in Denver is one of the schools that has offered the course for the past five years, in English and Spanish. At Denver West High School, more than 80% of students identify as Latinx.

House Bill 25-1192, which has bipartisan support from state lawmakers including Reps. Don Wilson, Lorena Garcia, and Sens. James Coleman and Barbara Kirkmeyer, would make financial literacy a graduation requirement statewide.

Statewide, only 13% of students are guaranteed access to a high school personal finance course before graduation.

Alejandro Palma is a senior at West High School who is taking a financial literacy course as an elective.

“You learn a lot from it, you learn about investments,” said Palma.

As a second generation Latinx student, he feels the pressure to build on generational wealth.

“You learn how to make a resume and how to keep a job,” said Palma.

It may seem like basic life skills, but they are necessary to learn.

The course teaches students to manage finances, understand credit and invest while tailoring to the needs of bilingual students.

Chris Velasquez, a teacher at Denver West, teaches the course in Spanish.

“A lot of kids that we have here because it is a huge immigrant population, start growing businesses, whether its concrete and painting, and they ask us ‘How can I network?’” said Velasquez.

For the past five years, Velasquez says the course has been extremely helpful for many students and is the first school in the district to offer the course in Spanish.

“They get to understand what a co-signer is, what does credit mean, especially since some of our populations, they don’t even use credit — they grew up thinking credit was the devil,” said Velasquez.

Meanwhile, inside Daniel Walter’s classroom students are learning how to manage their finances using apps.

“When I talk to other people about what I do and what I teach every time their jaws hit the floor and say ‘I wish I would have taken that class,’” said Walter.

He says regardless of one’s race or socioeconomic status, the lessons learned in this class can be used for life.

“There’s just a great need to learn the tools of our system and to be financially stable,” said Walter.

The organization Ednium is in support of a bill at the Colorado State Capitol. It would make this course a requirement statewide. In 2021, the organization helped make the course a requirement in Denver Public Schools. Now the 2024-2025 year the course would be required for graduation.

Elijah Huff with the Ednium says the push for this course would be extremely beneficial to educating young people to save money.

“I think its also a huge culture boost for certain communities as well to learn how to manage money and how to work with money when we know there has been a huge gap in some of our communities in Denver,” said Huff.

The bill would also make it a requirement for students to apply for state aid.

Although the state board strongly encourages local school districts to require personal finance education, most do not. Colorado ranks 46th in FAFSA completion nationwide, and it’s estimated that students in the state leave more than $30 million in federal aid on the table annually.

“Across time I just think it’s the community that has been really big on trying to tear down the barriers and being vocal about it,” said Huff.

As for Palma, he plans to join the military, but first he’ll use what he learned in class to land his first job.

The hearing for the bill, which has bipartisan support, is scheduled for March 6.