Brunswick senator’s bill to require high school finance classes stalls

A bipartisan bill proposed by State Senator Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick) to require Maine high school students to take financial classes is stalling.

daughter bill, LD1284will require high school students to take a semester of independent personal financial literacy classes in order to graduate.

legislative The Education and Cultural Commission reviewed the bill, and lawmakers recently agreed to postpone action on the bill until the next Congress pending further investigation. Daughtry was disappointed with the decision.

“We will continue to work on it,” she said, adding that the commission would look into high school curriculum requirements to determine if a personal finance course would be a good fit.

The Maine Department of Education now requires two years of social studies to teach personal finance alongside history, government, and civics. Daughtry and co-sponsors of the bill, including Republican Senator Matt Priott, say that’s not enough. Democratic State Senators David Lafountain, Tim Nangle, and Joe Rafferty. Democratic State Representative Edward Crockett. and Republican State Rep. David Woodsome.

Polio said the amount of time teachers spend on personal finances varies widely.

“The quality of education shouldn’t depend on the zip code,” Mr. Pouliot previously told The Times Record. “People are crippled by debt in this country… (this bill) could help on a more practical level than the Pythagorean theorem.”

The Maine Association of Education Associations, the Maine Board of Education, and the Maine Association of Principals opposed the bill, arguing that personal finance was already taught in schools and that the bill would remove local control from school districts. there is

Maine Education Association President Grace Leavitt said at a hearing on the bill in May, “We don’t think it’s necessary to require additional courses. It can be difficult,” he testified. “Students will have to give up other options to add this course, even though this issue is already covered in social studies classes.”

Nineteen states require personal finance courses for high school students to graduate. New England, New Hampshire and Rhode Island have this requirement, and lawmakers in Connecticut passed a similar bill last month.

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