LOUISVILLE, Ky. — What if high schoolers learned about budgeting, investing and saving instead of precalculus?

What You Need To Know

  • Patrick Graboviy, 16, wrote a bill requiring financial literacy credit in school

  • House Bill 342 would require a financial literacy credi

  • Graboviy testified during a House standing committee

  • The Bill would not increase the number of credits required to graduate

North Oldham High School student Patrick Graboviy has no ill-will toward precalculus or algebra. He feels financial literacy is more beneficial for most young adults to know after graduation.

The 16-year-old junior has penned a bill. House Bill 342, would require all Kentucky public school students to complete a financial literacy course, potentially swapping such coursework with elected math classes like precalculus.

The graduation requirement would expose more students to lessons in budgeting, savings, investing, credit and debt.

“As of right now only 4% of Kentucky students are required to take personal finance course, that’s a problem, because, the truth is, it should be a 100%,” Graboviy told Spectrum News. “Because that’s how we’re going to save our students. That’s how we’re going to save our economies,” he continued.

That figure, 4%, comes from the nonprofit organization Next Gen Personal Finance, which advocates for students being better prepared to manage income.

“My great sponsor Michael Meredith, who is the chairman of banking and insurance, [is] very passionate about this issue and from there we also brought on Representatives [Ken] Fleming and [Steve] Bratcher which cosponsored the bill,” Graboviy explained.

On Feb. 26 Graboviy spoke during a house standing committee fielding questions from lawmakers about HB 342.

“What this bill does is find a place within the current credit structure to place a personal finance course, and like Representative Meredith said, that’s within math, social studies, or an elective,” Graboviy told lawmakers.

Republican lawmaker Kevin Jackson of Bowling Green was supportive of the bill during this committee meeting and said, “And when you stop and think about it what are they going to use more in life than a financial literacy class or algebra 1 or algebra 2? Most kids are going to use financial literacy.”

HB 342 passed unanimously in the House on March 4 as Graboviy awaited updates at school. The bill now moves on to the Senate, where Graboviy hopes it’ll be assigned a committee.

“This isn’t going to be just a steppingstone for them. This is something that’s going to be something that last them for the rest of their lives,” Graboviy said.

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