1,500 High Schools Launch New AP Business Course for Personal Finance
The College Board introduced the class this year to meet student demand for practical financial skills.
By Alina Carter ·
More than 1,500 high schools across the United States are offering a new Advanced Placement business course for the first time this year.
The class focuses on personal finance and business management. Students can take an exam to earn college credit. The College Board, which also administers the SAT, created the course after students in AP surveys expressed a desire to turn ideas into jobs.
Hoover High School near Birmingham, Alabama, is one of the institutions offering the class. The school serves nearly 3,000 students and is the largest high school in Alabama. In a recent class, teacher Gerri Kimble led a discussion on how students should handle their part-time paychecks. The students described various strategies, including buying tea, filling gas tanks, and investing.
Junior Darshan Parmar said he invests in index funds such as the S&P 500, QQQ, and VOO. He stated that he manages these investments himself rather than having his parents do it. Another student in the class puts 70 percent of their money into a Roth IRA. A third student contributes to a 401(k), while another invests directly in stocks.
David Coleman, CEO of the College Board, described business as a constant learning of adaptation. He argued that the subject is now a new part of the liberal arts. Coleman said the course is as important for preparing students for the world as core subjects like math and history. He noted that this mix of practical and theoretical pedagogy is extremely useful today.
The new AP course is part of a wider trend in US high schools to include money and finance in the curriculum. According to the Council for Economic Education, 39 states now require a personal finance class for graduation. That is four more states than two years ago.
Jennifer Steele, a professor of education at American University, said that families in states requiring financial education often make better financial decisions. She cited a Federal Reserve paper that found these families were more likely to use stimulus checks during the pandemic to pay down credit card balances and refinance mortgages while interest rates were low.
Sophomore Damola Kukoyi at Hoover High said the AP course helps boost his grade point average because these classes are often weighted higher. Senior Rachel Deschaine, whose father owned a trucking company and whose brother is studying economics, said the lessons apply to everyday life. She stated that business knowledge teaches students how people and companies interact financially with the world.
