OLYMPIA — A bill that would have required students to take a financial literacy class to graduate was ultimately defeated before the Washington Legislature concludes this week for its 2024 session.
The bill underwent major changes on the Senate floor on February 29, when Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island, introduced an amendment that would remove the graduation requirement.
“The graduation requirement part is essentially what this bill was intended to do, and removing it would do nothing,” Rep. Schuyler Ruud, R-Walla Walla, the lead sponsor of House Bill 1915, wrote in a recent paper. mentioned in. interview.
On February 8, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill that would make the course mandatory for high school students scheduled to graduate in 2031. According to a 2021 survey from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, 47% of adults have no savings. For unexpected expenses.
When the bill was introduced on the Senate floor on Feb. 29, Wellman removed the graduation requirement and replaced it with a requirement that all school districts offer the course by the 2027-28 school year. She thought it would be better if all schools offered these courses as prerequisites before making them a graduation requirement.
“This year, we didn't want to throw this at schools and say, 'Here are the graduation requirements,'” Wellman said.
Current law requires schools to provide financial education to students, but students are not required to take these classes.
On February 12, the bill passed the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Wellman. He said he did not introduce the amendment earlier in the process because he did not have time.
The amendment was adopted on the floor, and the bill passed the Senate on a 47-1 vote, with Sen. Phil Fortunato (R-Auburn) casting the only “no” vote.
Rude says he wouldn't be able to support the bill if the graduation requirement was removed.
House Democrats and Republicans, with more than 55 original sponsors, and Senate Republicans agree on making financial education a graduation requirement, and only Senate Democrats have expressed concerns, Rude said. he said.
“I hope there are avenues to pursue further graduation requirements,” Ruud said.
This report used materials from the Seattle Times archives.
