Kendall County Times

A bill sponsored by veteran state Sen. Meg Loughran Cappel (D-Shorewood) aimed at increasing students' level of financial literacy has been signed into law.

Senate Bill 1830, which allows either one year or a semester of a financial literacy course to count toward any social studies requirement to graduate high school, is slated to take effect immediately.

“A major part of our responsibility as educators is to prepare kids for life beyond the classroom,” Loughran said in a post to Facebook. “Applicable, real life skills ought to receive greater attention in the classroom and it is my pledge to continue finding ways to address critical gaps in our curriculum.”

As further ammunition for the move, Loughran Cappel points to a recent USA TODAY study that finds of those who attended college, just over two in five (41 percent) said they received enough information during that time to build good financial habits and just three in ten said their high school education did so.

In addition, when quizzed about what they wish they had learned more about in school, financial topics were at the top of the list for most students.