NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL: Update on Sen. Ted W. Lieu's bill on financial literacy for students

By Eric Gneckow, Business Journal Staff Reporter

A California Senate bill meant to foster greater adoption of financial literacy training in schools passed a significant milestone after unanimous approval from the Senate Education Committee.

Authored by Southern California Senator Ted Lieu, the bill, known as SB 1080, would formally encourage school districts to provide instruction related to personal finance within their economics curricula. It would also require the state Department of Education to include financial literacy material in textbooks for mathematics and history-social science.

“If we’d had better financial literacy among our citizenry, the financial crisis of the last decade would have been mitigated,” said Mr. Lieu, in a written statement.

Many schools and districts, including those in the North Bay, have chosen to integrate financial literacy into their instruction. However, while the effort has support from as high as the state superintendent and the White House, those efforts remain a patchwork as education systems focus on a myriad of concerns and budget constraints.

The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee, and could ultimately go before the Senate, the State Assembly and ultimately the governor for ratification or veto.