Starting next school year, all high school students in Virginia will need to take an economics and financing class for at least one year during high school.
When my teacher told us that Virginia was going to start requiring an economics/financing credit next school year, I took it as very good news. Financing, let alone economics, are subjects that are far overlooked in public education. They are subjects that are applicable to anything in life, and not having basic economic and financial knowledge can lead to dire problems. For example, many economic theorists argue that one of the main causes of the 2008 stock market crash was lack of knowledge on the part of consumers. In fact, the 2008 crash was a wake up call that showed how badly schools needed classes like this. Though education officials have been pushing for an economics requirement for many years, the crash made Virginia recognize the need for it.
I cannot describe how much students and the U.S. economy would benefit from a course like this. Before I took IB Economics, the only times I every learned about economics or financing were in third grade and eighth grade in civics. And even then, the curriculum was not potent. In third grade, I just recall my teacher telling us to “tell mommy and daddy that credit cards are bad.” In eighth grade, the only thing that comes to mind is learning the definitions of supply and demand.
So the idea of teaching high school students invaluable lessons about basic economics, personal financing and consumer rights sounds great. The biggest problem I have with this, however, is the implementation.
The first thing that should be addressed is the sheer breadth of topics that are covered. Over 18 units, combining economics, personal financing and consumer rights, will be put into one class. If all these topics are crammed into such a short time frame, the class is going to be rushed, with some aspects that are not beneficial to the students (inheritance taxes, anyone?) Moreover, if the class is rushed, how does Virginia expect the average student to retain this information?
The other problem is that teachers will have to be recruited to teach the class. High school economics teachers are a rare breed and I doubt other social studies teachers would have the time or energy to teach an economics course on top of their normal classes.
Aside from the logistics in all of this, there is a clear right-wing slant in the curriculum (perhaps to cater to conservative- minded Virginians in the south). Examples of this include teaching students about “consumer sovereignty” and explaining that governments “redistribute wealth” and that “all taxes and fees fun all government-provided goods and services”. The right slant may not be that clear to everyone, but you have to admit, there are some subtleties here and there.
I applaud Virginia for conceiving the idea of an economics/personal financing requirement, but serious changes need to be made regarding how it will be implemented.