Texas High Schoolers Personal Finance: Texas is making personal finance a required part of high school graduation. The new rule is meant to help students understand money better before they start working, going to college or handling bills on their own.
The law comes from House Bill 27, which was passed with support from both parties in 2025. It requires students entering ninth grade in the 2026-27 school year to complete a half-credit personal financial literacy course.
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The new course will focus on money matters that students may soon deal with in real life. The Texas Education Agency says the course is designed to help young people make informed financial decisions and understand personal financial responsibility.
Students are expected to study topics such as credit and debit, budgeting, taxes and investing. They will also work on setting financial goals based on their future careers and personal plans. The course will also cover economic ideas. Students will compare the free enterprise system with socialist and communist systems.
“We’re trying to give kids some cautionary things to avoid but equip them with the tools they need to be successful,” said Aaron Kinsey, R-Midland.
Personal finance was already taught in Texas high schools, but it was often included within economics classes. One previous course offered around 11 hours of personal finance lessons, while the personal financial literacy and economics course had about 45 hours.
Under HB 27, personal finance is now separated from economics as a required course. Economics will become an additional option. An Advanced Placement course that closely matches the required material may also count.
The new personal finance standards were approved by the State Board of Education in September 2026 in an 8-4 vote. The revised course is set to take effect in the 2028-29 school year.
The new course also faced criticism. Ray Hughel of SMU’s Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom said students need a wider understanding of economics too. He raised concerns about topics such as incentives, trade, supply and demand and competition receiving less attention.
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“It’s crucial that we have students [who] are well-informed about financial matters and about economic matters, not just good at balancing their checkbooks, so to speak,” he said. Some board members also worried there was too much material for one semester.
“It’s an unreasonable goal to reach,” said Evelyn Brooks, R-Frisco. “I don’t understand how teachers are going to teach this in a semester. We have to keep in mind this is all Texas students.”
The push comes as financial literacy remains weak among young Americans. The 2026 TIAA Institute-GFLEC survey found that U.S. adults answered 47% of its financial literacy questions correctly on average, while Gen Z managed only 38%.
“[It’s] much more complex with much more individual responsibility,” Stanford economist Annamaria Lusardi said. “Schools should adapt in the same way we have added foreign languages, we have added computers.”
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