Danny Kofke, a former elementary school teacher, wrote this column in 2015 to argue that parents have the greatest influence on what children learn about money. A new section after the original text looks at what has changed in schools since then and how parents can put Kofke’s advice to use today.
A study from the National Endowment for Financial Education surveyed 683 adults, aged 18 to 39, and 391 parents of adults in that age range. Forty-two percent of the adults said they are currently receiving or have received financial help from their parents, and 59% of parents said they’ve given it.
I know that many people are hesitant to discuss money with their children — or their spouses/partners, for that matter. I have talked about this with one of my pastors and he told me that people will come to him for help with all sorts of issues ranging from drug abuse to infidelity in a marriage but money issues still remain a taboo topic for a lot of people. I know that many parents are embarrassed by their past money mistakes and do not want to discuss these with their children. I feel the complete opposite—the mistakes are the reasons that we should absolutely discuss this topic with our children. Most kids love it when their parents mess up. They can relate to them a little better. As a parent, if you have made a money mistake, I feel it is a golden opportunity to help your child learn. You see, we all make mistakes. The important thing is that we learn from these mistakes and do not allow them to happen again.
Student Loan Debt and a Lack of Awareness
I first really realized the need for teaching financial literacy during the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the fall of 2011. I heard some in this movement were blaming “evil” corporations and CEOs for bad job prospects. Some recent college graduates had upwards of $50,000 in student loan debt, some much more, in fields where the prospect of finding a well-paying job is not likely for many. This is why many young people were angry—they had all this debt and a college degree but could only find a job as a barista at a coffee shop that paid next to nothing.
To further illustrate this point, there was an editorial written in a major city’s newspaper from a local hometown young woman. She attended a four-year college-preparatory private girls’ Catholic high school and then went on to earn degrees from two universities.
Upon graduating from college, she owed over $180,000 in student loan debt! She continued by acknowledging that the debt is her responsibility but she was able to accumulate this huge debt through a combination of factors including a lack of awareness. She now works two jobs and has a strict budget. Despite working more than most of us, she still lives with her parents because she cannot afford to have a place of her own. She feels as if she followed society’s expectations, earned an education and is employed. Even though this is the case, she can barely afford to buy a meal out. She concludes that due to reckless neglect, student loan debt will be the financial ruin of her generation.
What a horrible situation to be in. After doing what she thought (and was probably told) was the correct course to follow, this young woman now realizes the errors of her decisions. It is too late for her to go back in time and follow a different path, but it is not too late for your child!
Money Management Missing From the Classroom
After reading about her and others who are in a similar situation, I started to think about how we teachers (I was an elementary school teacher for 14 years) educate our students in money management. Looking back on my career I realized something awful—we don’t! That’s right, we will educate our youth on the characters in Beowulf or have them memorize the periodic table — things that many of us will never use outside of a high school classroom — but do not teach them how to balance a checkbook or create a budget. If you want your child to have a healthy relationship with money, and if you do not want to end up like the 59% of parents who support their children into adulthood, it is up to you to teach the financial skills necessary to ensure this happens.
Even though we adults are not teaching our youth about money, they are still learning about this topic from a horrible teacher—advertisers. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the average American child sees almost 40,000 commercials every year! Since 1983, the annual amount of television advertising directed at kids has skyrocketed from just $100 million to more than $15 billion according to Juliet Schor, author of “Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture.” Companies spend large sums of money promoting their products and brands to kids for one reason—it works. Many kids can hum and sing commercial jingles by the time they turn three. By the time children reach age seven, they can recognize many companies’ advertising logos and brand names.
Many of us develop our personal financial habits during our youth and these habits are similar to those of our parents. Adults who spend like there is no tomorrow and don’t save for the future usually have children who are masterful at spending but horrible at saving.
Parents as the Greatest Influence
As parents, most of us want our kids to have it better than we do. In order for that to happen, you have to take an active role in teaching your child how to manage money, because as I have just shared with you—they are not learning this anywhere else. Surveys show that parents, not teachers, have the greatest influence on a child’s financial literacy. Even though this remains a tough time for some, it is also a golden opportunity to make a lasting impact for the future of our country. We cannot change the past; but we can learn from our mistakes and make sure our children do not make the same errors.
One of my favorite quotes is from Frederick Douglass. He said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Let’s get to work building!
The opinions expressed here are solely those of Danny Kofke.
Financial literacy for parents in 2026: what schools now teach and what still falls to the family
Danny Kofke’s column above makes a case that financial literacy for parents is a responsibility they cannot hand to a school. Kofke wrote in 2015 that classrooms were not teaching budgeting or debt, and that children were learning about money from advertisers instead. A good deal has changed in schools since then, and the changes make Kofke’s point easier to act on.
What has changed in school
The clearest change is in state requirements. A March 2026 article from the retirement company Empower, citing the Council for Economic Education’s biennial Survey of the States, reports that 39 states require high school students to take some coursework in personal finance before graduating. The same article reports that about 30 states require a stand-alone personal finance class of at least one semester, a figure it attributes to Next Gen Personal Finance and calls approximate. The two numbers differ because they count different things. The larger one includes states that teach personal finance inside economics or social studies, and the smaller one counts only a separate course. A parent who wants to know what a child will actually receive should ask the school which of the two applies there.
The same article cites research on why states are acting, and the studies come with limits that parents should know. It reports that one study, cited by CNBC, found that students who took a personal finance course tended to have higher credit scores and lower rates of debt delinquency as young adults. It also reports, with a reference to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Money Smart for Young People, that students whose teachers have substantive preparation in personal finance score three times higher on financial knowledge assessments than peers taught by untrained instructors. Both findings describe differences among groups of students. They do not show that a single course will change one child’s habits.
Why the home still matters
Kofke relied on surveys to say that parents have more influence than teachers on a child’s financial literacy. The new requirements leave that influence in place, because a course meets for a semester while a household shows its approach to money every day. A student who learns what a credit score is in class still watches how a family handles a bill, a purchase or a bad month. The class and the home work best when they say the same things.
Kofke also asked parents to talk about their own money mistakes, and that suggestion applies to any family. Many parents hesitate because the subject feels private or embarrassing. A parent does not need to share an income or a balance to explain why a loan has interest, why a late payment costs more than the payment, or why a purchase was regretted.
Starting the conversation
For parents who want a practical way to begin, a few steps fit most families.
- Ask the school what personal finance instruction is offered, in which grade, and whether it is a separate course. Teachers and counselors can usually answer this in a short email.
- Choose one real decision a month to discuss aloud with a child, such as comparing two prices, planning a purchase or setting aside money from a gift.
- Give children small amounts of money to manage, so that a mistake is cheap and the lesson is clear.
- Talk about advertising directly. Kofke noted how much advertising is aimed at children, and asking a child what an advertisement wants them to do builds a habit that lasts.
- Explain, at a level the child can follow, how the family thinks about borrowing, including student loans, since Kofke’s column was prompted by graduates struggling with debt.
Educators who want more can read edCircuit’s articles on the importance of financial literacy in schools, on why money education matters and on financial literacy programs in higher education. School leaders deciding how to support families can send home the same questions listed above, so that parents know what the school teaches and what is left for the household.
Kofke closed with a quotation about building strong children, and it points to the right place to start. Many children will now also take a personal finance course, and a parent who has already talked about money at home will find that the course has something to build on.