Minnesota's new graduation requirements: Learn how to manage money and participate in democracy

[question everything]

(cross posting from the Education group https://www.democraticunderground.com/112414399

Minnesota lawmakers think too many high school students are earning their diplomas without a clue of how to manage their money or participate in democracy. So now those subject areas will be a requirement for graduation. Students who enter high school in the 2024-25 school year or later must now complete a personal finance course and a class on government and citizenship before graduating. Students who enter high school in the 2024-25 school year or later must now complete a personal finance course and a class on government and citizenship before graduating.

Government and citizenship

Students will have to take the government and citizenship class in grade 11 or 12. Legislators said the government and citizenship class is urgently needed, as did people who testified, who said the requirement could help better inform the electorate and mend societal divisions.

Personal finance

The personal finance class requirement garnered bipartisan support in the DFL-controlled Legislature. Legislators said it would help students make better decisions about borrowing, saving money and balancing a budget.

Ethnic studies, Holocaust education

High schools must offer an ethnic studies course starting in the 2026-27 school year. Elementary and middle schools have to begin providing ethnic studies instruction to students the following year. School districts also must offer education on the Holocaust and other genocides as part of middle school and high school social studies curriculum by the 2026-27 school year.

That curriculum also must "examine the history of the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous removal from Minnesota, including the genocide, dispossession, and forced removal of the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-Chunk," the law says.

https://www.startribune.com/goal-for-new-minnesota-high-school-graduates-better-citizens-who-dont-fritter-away-their-money/600284203/

[Ocelot II]

1. OMG, it sounds....

WOKE!!!!!!

[dflprincess]

3. Exactly!

Yay for us!

[Deuxcents]

2. Congratulations! Teaching kids how the real world works.

Finances. How to work smart. How about cooling and heating, roofers, framers, electricians and other skills? Not everyone wants to go to college but there could be companies that work with 11-12th graders to be mentors for the skills needed and in dire need of. Teach these kids the basics and stay with them and then when they graduate, hire them.

[question everything]

4. Don't they teach that in shop classes?

[Deuxcents]

5. My point was for businesses to send a mentor to these shop classes

And work with the kids. Maybe even work for credits but by the time they’re ready to graduate, a company has already trained their new employee to be ready to partner up and be an apprentice. The on the job training would be easier and more productive and loyal from the start.