This is a great idea—teach students how to handle their finances. That means understanding credit cards, cost of loans, taxes and more.
It took one man spending $7 million to get this on the ballot. That is ridiculous. The Legislature should have done this without spending that much money on what should be a basic part of education. I will vote for this on the November ballot.
PERSONAL FINANCE — Teach Children Personal Finance Ballot Measure
California Playbook Politico, 3/12/24 https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2024/03/12/stuttering-advocates-have-words-for-donald-trump-00146443?nname=california-playbook&nid=00000150-384f-da43-aff2-bf7fd35a0000&nrid=0000014e-f100-dd93-ad7f-f905c0f70001&nlid=641189
The campaign to require California high school students to take a personal finance class will today turn in the signatures needed to put its proposal on the November ballot.
Backers have racked up more than 880,000 signatures, they said, and the state only needs to verify around 547,000, or 62 percent, for the measure to go before voters.
Advocates turned to the initiative process last year when an effort to mandate the one-semester course stalled in the state Legislature under opposition from school boards. The bill is back this year, but it’s not clear it has a path through Sacramento.
Tim Ranzetta , an entrepreneur funding the initiative campaign, said in an interview that he has poured $7 million into signature gathering and outreach. He previously taught personal finance at an East Palo Alto school as a volunteer and is the co-founder of the nonprofit Next Gen Personal Finance, which he said will continue to provide free financial education materials to schools if the measure passes. —
