A bill that would have required financial education in high schools in Washington failed in this Congress. Members of both chambers of the state Legislature could not agree on whether to make it a high school graduation requirement.
Washington state Rep. Schuyler Ruud (R-Walla Walla) proposed House Bill 1915, which would require high schools to offer half-credit in financial education by the 2027-28 school year. Although the bill did not increase the 24 credits required for students to graduate, it would have required students to take financial education in order to graduate.
related: Discussion of financial education in Washington schools.
The idea received wide support but became embroiled in the legislative process before the session ended. It passed the House but was amended in the Senate. If a bill is amended outside the original chamber, it must be sent back to the original chamber for reapproval. The House did not accept the changes, and the bill officially died Thursday as Congress concludes its 2024 session.
Should financial education be mandatory?
Even though the bill passed the House in February, some lawmakers expressed concerns about its approach. Those concerns came to a head in the state Senate, where lawmakers amended a bill that would require high schools to offer financial education. But it doesn't require Students must take it to graduate. The amended bill passed in the Senate with only one negative vote.
State Sen. Lisa Wellman (D-Mercer Island) supported the amendment, arguing that it essentially skipped a step.
“This bill was introduced as a graduation requirement with no prerequisites other than the fact that we have been suggesting that school districts incorporate financial instruction into other courses for many years,” Wellman said in February. He said this on the Senate floor. The 29th, just before the vote on the bill.
Sen. Wellman said schools have been asked to make it a top priority for years, but that “may or may not have happened.”
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“Having common sense and knowledge about financial etiquette is really important,” she says. “This amendment means we are not ready to make this a graduation requirement.”
Wellman said there is support for making financial education a graduation requirement in the future. First, she said Congress needs to make financial education available to all students.