House Bill 203, sponsored by State Representative Jeff Hilovsky, R-Millsboro, may mandate that high school students take and pass a financial literacy course that is at least half credit in order to graduate, starting with individuals entering the ninth grade in the 2025–2026 academic year.
This act comes after earlier legislation that was passed in 2016 and created a workforce to investigate, evaluate, and recommend financial literacy education in Delaware’s public schools. As a result of the function of this workforce, Financial Literacy Content Standards were developed and adopted, going into effect with the 2018–2019 academic year.
However, requiring students to take and complete a financial literacy course in order to graduate did not prioritize teaching this crucial subject. The parliamentary factual conclusions outlined in HB-203 more than justify the requirement for this somewhat minor addition to graduation requirements:
- 1.60 percent of families live on a salary.
- Less than $300 in savings is held by 2.4% of Americans.
- 95% of Americans have insufficient retirement savings, and 3.33% have none at all.
- 4.87 percent of American teenagers admit they don’t understand money.
Although these factual results may be sufficient to support and defeat any opposition to the passage of HB-203, recent reports have highlighted the urgency of the need to do so:
- Delaware receives a “C” on the 2023 National Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools, and it is predicted that if no steps are taken to address this deficiency, Delaware will continue to have an “A” grade through 2028.
- According to a 2022 study by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Foundation, people’s financial literacy is steadily declining, with younger adults (18 to 39), women, and African Americans experiencing even higher declines than other demographic groups.
Additionally, Article X, Section 1 of the Delaware Constitution mandates that Delaware’s state, including the legislative and executive branches, establish and maintain a comprehensive and effective system of free public universities. According to Delaware courts, this constitutional provision requires the state to “make a system of public institutions that educates Delaware’s children.” The significance of “education” is the act or method of educating or learning, the authorities have clarified. A mission to establish and maintain a system of public schools cannot be divorced from the assumption that the students attending them will receive an education, according to the authorities.
The urgent need that HB-203 intends to handle calls for immediate action to move and adopt the law because it is entirely consistent with this legal mandate.
This paper and others have just reported on another public schooling issue that may also be subject to this constitutional mandate. The Cape Henlopen School District’s demand for funding to expand its services to realistically target and provide a fast-growing membership and crowding of its existing facilities have reportedly been rejected by the Delaware Department of Education. The seemingly unexplained DOE rejection of what appears to be a reasonable request by the Cape Henlopen School District to address what some citizens believe is inappropriate overdevelopment (i.e., far in excess of existing and proposed infrastructure improvements) warrants reconsideration at the very least given what the Delaware Constitution mandates.
The general public anticipates that our government will be responsive to its demands and responsible. On the one hand, HB-203 is a superb illustration of sensitivity and accountability from the government. On the other hand, some people may view the DOE’s denial of the Cape Henlopen District’s affordable demand for legal financial aid, which appeared to be made without much, if any, justification, as a good illustration of how unresponsive and unaccountable the government is.
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s open arbitrator is William Mailander, who resides in Lewes.