Expenses are escalating for the things a high-schooler typically needs to pay for: food, gas and college. However, many students do not know how they are going to pay for these things, and often, neither do their parents.
Personal finance is a class that teaches students how to deal with their money.
The administration and business department are looking into expanding the class and eventually making it mandatory for students.
“The expenses seem to be escalating,” Principal Ronald Booth said. “The price of food is going up. Gasoline is significant. College is skyrocketing. Personal finance… we want to make it really important. What is a reasonable amount of money for a 17-year-old to have a week?”
By recent state law, all students must have a class that deals with economics and financial literacy.
Arapahoe is meeting these requirements with a mandatory economics class, which will no longer be waived for any reason.
“Beginning next year, if you take AP Government or AP US History, that does not absolve you from taking economics,” Booth said.
This policy is now in place to not only satisfy state mandates, but to prepare students for the real world of finances.
However, the economics class does not cover personal topics such as how to balance a checkbook, how to invest and how to pay for college, but rather subjects like the Federal Reserve, supply and demand, and how capitalism really works.
However, Arapahoe has students covered. The personal finance class has a focus on things that students need to know.
“[Knowing how to pay for things] is a life skill,” personal finance teacher Heather Greenwood said. “It’s all about applying [the knowledge] now. Students should come out of the class and say, ‘Wow, I’m going to use this.’”
“[Students need to know] how you fit into the infinite scheme of checking accounts, how to invest and how to understand it for yourself,” Booth said.
Caroline Swank, Business Education Department Chair, said that personal finance is a useful class. However, it will not be mandatory for students currently enrolled at Arapahoe.
“It is not a requirement now, but we are taking steps to get it there,” Swank said.
Swank and Greenwood said that the business department is working on expanding the class.
There will be more sections of personal finance available next year. However, in order to make the class a mandatory graduation requirement, it has to go through the school board.
Apparently, the plan is to increase student interest, enrollment and teacher expertise before the class is taken to the board.
More sections of personal finance will be available next year to benefit students.
“If you want to go to college, you can’t without knowing how to pay for it,” Greenwood said.
Personal finance focuses more on microeconomics while the economics class focuses on macroeconomics.
While economics teaches the big picture, personal finance deals with the small issues that are more pertinent to the average high school graduate.
However, entrepreneurship is the fastest growing area for college graduates. Entrepreneurs need to know how to handle money, and that’s where personal finance comes in.
“Teenagers don’t realize there’s a time when you will be treated like an adult,” Booth said. “When you’re a senior you don’t realize that one day you’ll wake up and won’t have someone to take care of you.”
Due to the fact that students can no longer take AP Government or AP US History instead of economics, some students would be missing out on more AP credit. Because of this, Assistant Principal Natalie Pramenko said that there will be an AP Economics class next year.
“Unless something radical happens, we will have AP Econ next year,” economics teacher Denise Passwaters said. “It’s on the schedule.”
These potential graduation requirements would not create more total required hours in students’ schedules.
“I would make personal finance a requirement for graduation and reduce P.E. credits by two,” Booth said.
Therefore, students would have to take the same number of hours of mandatory classes to graduate.
Economics does not cover everything students should know about money. Personal finance will supplement the information students learn in economics to create more financially savvy students.