High school should prepare students for life after graduation; however, students often do not take finance classes.

  After graduation, students often have debt and have to pay bills on their own without parental assistance.

  Seventeen states require that high schools have mandatory financial classes in public high school, but Pennsylvania is not one of them.

  Studies show that students who take financial and business classes have higher credit scores and less debt as young adults.

  Sophomore Anna Kirby believes that finance classes will help her throughout life.

  “If I take these classes it will help me for my entire life. I need to know how to do finances correctly and… it should be required so students who know nothing about finances can be prepared for the real world,” says Kirby.   

  Even though students will be more educated about money, there are downsides.

  Students only have a set number of elective credits, and anytime there are required classes, those interested in art, music, or languages may not be able to take those classes.

  Also, studies show that 89% of teachers think that finance classes should be required, but only 20% believe that they could teach that class.

  However, the business teachers at Susquehannock are raring to.

  “We’re all highly certified in the area. We all have a business education degree,and we are all financially conscious people as well,” says teacher Kellin McCullough.  

   At Susky, there have been steps taken to put financial classes into the curriculum.

   A finance class is offered, but many students don’t take it unless they are forced to by their parents.

  “…a lot of parents struggle with understanding finances too, so they’re actually unable to teach it to their children. So having it in the classroom is a big deal…,” says teacher Jocelyn Ruppert.

  Discussions have taken place among the staff, and a possible idea is to incorporate finance into other required courses.

  “..we’ve looked into looking at career seminar and finance and how we can work them together, and we’ve talked about what age and what grade level it would be best for,” says McCullough.

Planning continues to take place.