Kentuckians need to know more about how to handle their finances. That’s according to State Treasurer Allison Ball. She pushed for legislation to go through the Kentucky General Assembly to make financial literacy courses mandatory for students in the commonwealth’s high schools.
Ball said now that the legislation has passed, students will be learning the basics of managing their finances.
“It’s all the things you think you would need to know in your life. You need to know how to balance a budget, that might sound overly simplistic, but you’d be surprised how many people do not have a budget at any point in their life, let alone when they first graduate and start to make their own financial decisions.”
Ball said this year’s juniors in Kentucky schools will be the first ones to graduate with the new requirements. She hopes this will be the first step in generational change to help the financial future of Kentuckians.
Before becoming Treasurer, Ball worked as a bankruptcy lawyer. She said bankruptcy is a serious problem in Kentucky.
“It has been an issue in Kentucky for a while, it is still an issue. It is one of those things that I think is going to take a while before you really see a huge turnaround and part of that is making sure the next generation is ready and knows what to do.”
The courses in financial literacy in schools include learning how to balance a budget, deal with credit cards, and how to pay for college. Currently these courses are for high school students, but Ball would like to see variations of these classes taught earlier.
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