On July 1st, 2007, Oklahoma passed a law requiring that all students must pass the 14 competencies of financial literacy to graduate high school. There is no class or grade requirement within this law, the only requirement is that the competencies must be taught between 7th and 12th grade. According to the Champlain College of Financial Literacy Research,Oklahoma is currently ranked at a "C" grade level for financial literacy retainment. This alone shows that our state is not doing enough to help students become financially literate.

There has been much research done to prove that financial literacy should be taught to students that are nearing graduation. First off, the Oklahoma Financial Literacy curriculum is graded at an 11.2 grade level (11th grade, 2nd month), yet we are teaching it at extremely young grade levels such as 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. It is unfair to the students that we are expecting them to be able to understand taxes, loans, and car payments all while they are only in the 7th grade. 7th-9th graders simply aren't thinking about life after high school at that age, and they are each just trying to adjust to life from the Jr High to High School transition Also, a recent survey was done and over 78% that took financial literacy in the 9th grade do not remember anything about the class. When a student becomes a junior or senior, they wish to know more about financial topics that the financial literacy class teaches. That is why there should be stricter laws on when we teach financial literacy.

I believe that requiring financial literacy in the 11th and 12th grade will help students better understand the knowledge and help prepare them for a better financial future. Please sign this petition in our efforts to change the Oklahoma Financial Literacy law to require financial literacy in the 11th or 12th grade.