Require schools to teach students financial literacy

Fifty percent of the US population has less than 1,000 dollars saved. Let that sink in. This is partially because of economic disparities, but also because we are not taught how to manage our money. The majority of school districts in the US require Geometry, and yet a student can graduate high school not knowing how to balance a check book, invest, save, manage debt, or any of the other skills which are essential to adult life, and which they are much more likely to confront than a rouge triangle trying to calculate its hypotenuse. The school system has assumed that parents can teach their kids these skills, but people of color and women have often been denied access to these skills. Hispanics, for example, scored on average 10 percent lower on the P-Fin Index, a test of financial literacy. Out of working women, only 29 percent demonstrated financial literacy as opposed to 47 percent of working men. The lack of financial literacy in our country allows companies to take advantage of people, caging them with debt. The most effective way to address this issue is to use an already established system- American schools- to teach these skills. Signing this petition means that you support every student in the US learning about basic monetary skills. This issue intersects with racism, sexism, classism, and health among many others. For more information about this issue, I strongly recommend this article from the US News and World Report: https://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/family-finance/articles/2017-08-01/5-scary-facts-about-financial-literacy-and-how-to-avoid-becoming-a-statistic. If you are interested in learning how to manage money effectively and navigate the financial system, this site has many helpful guides: https://www.practicalmoneyskills.com/learn