State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond was recently given an award for Excellence in Leadership by one of the state’s premier financial literacy organizations, the California Council on Economic Education. Thurmond championed financial literacy during his time as a legislator and previously established a nonprofit program for helping at-risk youth develop their entrepreneurial skills called CEO Youth. Thurmond is now working to have personal finance included as a California high school graduation requirement.

After encountering political difficulties on legislation he sponsored to require that schools teach personal finance (Assembly Bill 984), Thurmond has shifted his focus to getting a ballot measure passed that would require schools to teach personal finance. Thurmond is partnering with Next Gen Personal Finance External link opens in new window or tab. to launch the ballot measure campaign.

Thurmond and Next Gen Personal Finance are embarking on a listening tour to get input from school leaders about how to successfully implement a personal finance graduation requirement. Thurmond intends to host a personal finance convening in May that will show school districts how to implement personal finance courses partially through utilizing resources that were provided to schools to support financial literacy. Thurmond and other advocates are hoping to leverage the more than $3.6 billion allocated to schools in 2022 to support financial literacy and help schools begin laying the foundation for providing personal finance classes in schools while efforts to get a ballot measure passed are underway.

Source: SPI Receives Award for Economic Education – Year 2023 (CA Dept of Education)