While new grads are tossing their caps in the air this season, we're tipping ours to a vital personal finance education policy tool: the implementation runway.

NGPF’s mission is that by the year 2030, ALL students will be guaranteed to take a standalone personal finance course of at least one semester before graduating from high school. The NGPF community is working to reach this goal through a combination of grassroots efforts - educators championing the importance of teaching personal finance for all - and statewide efforts.

Defining 'implementation runway'

An implementation runway is the number of school years from when a personal finance course is approved as a graduation requirement to the first graduating class with the course on their transcripts. For example, the state of Nebraska approved personal finance as a graduation requirement in May 2021 with LB 452 being signed into law. The graduating Class of 2024 is the first to be required to take the personal finance course prior to graduation under Nebraska's new law.

Do some quick math, and you'll find a runway of approximately 3 school years to implement this policy in the Cornhusker State.

Shameless plug: NGPF Co-Founder Tim Ranzetta and I will be facilitating a FinCamp for personal finance educators in Omaha on July 23rd. We hope to see you there!

Why implementation runways matter

Mark Cuban once said, "time is the most valuable asset you don't own."

Immediately after a state's Governor signs a personal finance course guarantee into law, the clock is ticking. Think of everything that has to get done from the moment the ink dries on this policy to when every grad in the state must cross the stage with a comprehensive personal finance course on their transcript. At a minimum, this work includes standards adoption and revision, issuing policy guidance to school districts, educator professional development, student enrollment, student scheduling, curriculum assessment and feedback, and more.

This does not, and should not, happen overnight. Implementation runways are policy assets, as Mr. Cuban would say. When planned appropriately, personal finance course guarantees give school systems room to adjust and find solutions to the inevitable challenges that arise from a change this ambitious.

What is the 'normal' implementation runway?

No two states are alike, but some patterns have emerged among the 25 states that have adopted personal finance course guarantees. An implementation of four to five schools years appears to be the 'sweet spot.'

See stats below from NGPF's 2024 State of Financial Education Report for a sense of what implementation runways 'normally' look like:

• The median implementation runway is 4.5 school years.
• 19 of the 25 states that guarantee personal finance courses have implementation runways of between 4 and 5 school years.
• 3 states - Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan - have longer implementation runways from 6 to 6.5 school years.
• 3 states - Rhode Island, Nebraska, and Oregon - have shorter implementation runways from 2.5 to 3.5 school years.

Check out page 9 of the 2024 State of Financial Education Report for more details.

Is there such a thing as too short of an implementation runway?

I have to blow the whistle on this one. Yes, implementation runways must be long enough to give school systems time to adjust.

One particular state messed up its attempt at adopting and implementing a personal finance course guarantee. I'll leave out the name of the state, as I genuinely don't mean to offend anyone here and I'm sure everyone's intentions were good. However, the lessons we can learn in the wake of this debacle are pure gold for you if you care about getting this done correctly in your state.

In 2019, I noticed lawmakers in this unnamed state were celebrating on Twitter that the state had adopted a personal finance graduation requirement. I got so excited, but upon closer look, I saw that several crucial details in the policy were absent.

Notably, the policy was adopted in the spring of 2019 and enacted for the very next school year! There were less than two months for the entire state to create a new course, including standards, curriculum resources, professional development, enrollment, and scheduling. Meanwhile, students' schedules had already been created months ago.

In the end, fewer than 5% of high school students took a personal finance course in 2019-2020 in that state. Many school districts simply ignored the new policy. Why? Its timing was simply misaligned with the school year, and yes - way too short.

As this example illustrates, implementation runways are make or break for personal finance education. Advocate with care!

Thank you for advocating for #Mission2030

Thank you for reading, and join the NGPF community's Mission 2030 with the LIVE U.S. Dashboard and Financial Education Bill Tracker, organized Annual Reports, practical Advocacy Toolkit, inspiring Documentaries, and more.

About the Author

Christian Sherrill

Former teacher, forever financial education nerd. As NGPF's Director of Growth & Advocacy, Christian is laser-focused on our mission to guarantee all students a rigorous personal finance course before crossing the high school graduation stage. Having paid down over $40k in student loans in the span of 3 years - while living in the Bay Area on an entry level teacher's salary - he's eager to help the next generation avoid financial pitfalls one semester at a time.