The Oregon House passed a bill Wednesday that would add two half-credits to Oregon’s high school graduation requirements related to personal finance and post-high school skills.
Like many bills in the Senate, action on Senate Bill 3 had been stalled for weeks due to the six-week Senate Republican walkout. Now that the walkout has been resolved, Oregon lawmakers have less than a week to pass bills before the session must adjourn. Senate Bill 3 has both Democratic and Republican sponsors and overwhelmingly passed out of the Senate Tuesday with only one “no” vote. It passed the House with seven “no” votes.
“Our students must be prepared to make major financial decisions immediately upon graduating high school, if not sooner,” Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, co-chief sponsor of the bill, said in a press release shared Tuesday after the Senate vote.
“This bill will help ensure our young people are leaving school with the skills they need to make good financial decisions now and throughout their lives.”
The half credit on finance education would include lessons on building credit, creating a budget and spending mindfully, opening a bank account, understanding taxes, and “building financial well-being.”
The other half-credit would focus on higher education and career path skills, including lessons on how to build resumes and apply for jobs. Lessons would also include information on pursuing college financial aid, as well as “acting as a self-advocate for mental, physical, and financial well-being.”
The new graduation requirements were among the suggestions included in a state report on graduation requirements that came out last year. Feedback from Oregonians around the state supported some kind of financial literacy course for students, and a “future planning” course was one of the recommendations from the report’s authors.
The credits would be required starting with diplomas awarded after January 2027.
Currently, Oregon students need to gain at least 24 credits to graduate, including four credits of language arts, three credits in math, and three credits in science. In the 2021 session, the Oregon legislature passed a new half-credit requirement of civics education, which is included in the three social sciences credit requirement.
SB 3 is one of many up for consideration this session related to what students learn in schools.
A bill that would align the state’s plans for Holocaust and genocide education with the statewide rollout of an updated ethnic studies curriculum, also passed the Senate Tuesday and is now heading to the House. Another bill still in the Senate would “encourage,” but not require, instruction on how to prepare for earthquakes and other natural disasters.
The Legislature has also passed bills requiring a curriculum on the danger of fentanyl as well as sex trafficking prevention.
But not every curriculum bill has been successful this year. A bill that would have required lessons on climate change and its effects does not appear to be moving forward this year.
FILE - In this May 4, 2017, file photo, students head to classes at a high school in Forest Grove, Ore. High school graduation rates in Oregon, one of the lowest in the nation, rose 2 percent over the previous year to 78.7 percent. The state education department said Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019, that the asset of bilingualism is highlighted by the fact that students who exited English Learner programs before high school graduated at a rate nearly 4 percentage points higher than the statewide average. (AP Photo/Don Ryan, File)
Don Ryan / AP