Independence school receives personal finance class grant

Independence School District  is one of  the first high schools in the country to receive the Gold Standard Challenge Grant from Next Gen Personal Finance (NGPF), a Palo Alto, Calif. non-profit committed to ensuring that all students leave high school with the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly complex financial world.

The NGPF Gold Standard Challenge rewards and recognizes high schools that commit to ensuring that all students receive a one semester personal finance course before crossing the graduation stage.

At Independence High School, Linda Killian Baures has developed and currently teaches this class as a half-credit requirement for graduation. She believes personal finance is an important course for high school students. In this class, students learn basic money management skills they will be able to use throughout their lives. Topics of discussion include setting SMART (strategic, measurable, attainable, realistic, timebound) Goals, renting versus owning, financial decision making, the basics of retirement, credit, credit cards, and credit reports. Although a few families discuss money management at home, many families do not get to teach all of these topics. Students will use the knowledge and skills from this class throughout their lives.

Tim Ranzetta, co-founder of NGPF, says Independence School District  is the 37th high school across the U.S. that have earned the grant by making this change.

“Behind each of these schools’ adoption of a personal finance requirement is a story. A story of a teacher, an administrator, a board member, a student, a parent group whose passion, commitment and persistence led to this amazing accomplishment,” said Ranzetta. “I’m excited to see the momentum behind this initiative occurring across the United States and the community rallying behind Mission:2030. We have a decade to work together so that by 2030, all high school students will refer to personal finance as “the class that they are so glad they had.” 

More details on the Gold Standard Challenge, which will be offering up to $2 million in grants through the end of 2020, are available on the NGPF website. 

 

 

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