HR165.DOC

WHEREAS, financial education is a lifelong learning process that empowers individuals to plan for their futures; and

WHEREAS, a lack of financial literacy poses a significant barrier for Hawaii youth seeking financial independence, prosperity, and stability; and

WHEREAS, personal financial education that nurtures the development of fiscal responsibility and financial management skills is essential to ensure that our youth are prepared to manage money, credit, and debt, and are able to become responsible workers, heads of households, investors, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and citizens; and

WHEREAS, eighty-seven per cent of teenage participants in a 2012 study by ING Direct admitted they do not know much about personal finance; and

WHEREAS, fifty-five per cent of teens surveyed in Capital One’s 2011 Annual Back-to-School Shopping Survey want to learn how to manage their money; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2013, that the Department of Education is requested to establish and maintain an economic and financial management literacy course, to be conducted at each public high school in the State as part of the social studies curriculum, and to require successful completion of the course prior to a student's graduation from high school; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the course content should be based on national standards as well as the needs of Hawaii's youth; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Education is requested to develop the curriculum, materials, and guidelines necessary to implement the course; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Board of Education and the Superintendent of Education.

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:

Department of Education; Mandatory Financial Literacy Course.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	165
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013
STATE OF HAWAII