State treasurer to again push for financial education requirement for high schoolers

OLYMPIA – While State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti has been in office, he has spoken to thousands of people across the state. Not one, Pellicciotti said Thursday, has told him they feel adequately versed in financial education or financial literacy.

“But what really, truly shocks Washingtonians when I talk to them, is that financial education is not required in our schools today,” Pellicciotti said during an event at the state Capitol building.

Joined by State Sen. Adrian Cortes, D-Battle Ground, Pellicciotti announced that he would again push for legislation to make financial coursework a requirement for high school graduation. The proposal comes after a similar measure died in the Senate during the 2025 session, despite finding broad bipartisan support in the House of Representatives.

A similar proposal also died in 2024, when Pellicciotti backed a bill that would have added a half-credit financial education course to the list of state-mandated high school graduation requirements.

This year, Pellicciotti is optimistic that the bill will cross the finish line.

“I have a foundational view that everyone should have access to the economic empowerment that comes through understanding one’s finances,” Pellicciotti said. “And that no one should be reliant on how good their parents are with money as to whether or not they have the tools to be able to navigate the complexities of the world today.”

Some schools in the state already require financial education instruction, including the Pasco, Puyallup and Richland school districts. Pellicciotti said it is important that schools have the “flexibility” to establish a curriculum that meets their needs, through topics such as debt, credit cards, car loans and other common financial subjects.

“We ask a lot of 18- and 19-year-olds today, sign this, sign that. But we do not explain the difference between a grant and or a loan, or how interest rates are good when you are saving money and bad when you are borrowing money,” Pellicciotti said. “These are foundational concepts that if you do not have them as you enter the world, you are setting yourself up where you can get yourself in major debt cycles and huge challenges in your 20s in ways that have lifelong consequences.”

Cortes, the bill’s sponsor and a teacher in the Camas School District, said he was surprised to learn that Washington is an outlier when it comes to financial education. According to the National Endowment for Financial Education, 29 states require students to take a personal finance course to graduate from high school, and 73% of high school students will take a financial literacy course before they graduate.

Across the country, legislators in 13 states filed 25 bills to require financial education during their 2025 sessions.

“I’m pleased to support this legislation,” Cortes said. “I believe by supporting this legislation, it’s helping working-class families, it’s helping future small business owners that are going to be taking the reins in our state.”

If approved, the requirement would potentially not take effect until 2033, two years later than the bill passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year. While the bill ultimately died in his chamber after it failed to receive enough support earlier this year, Cortes said he is optimistic lawmakers will give it a second go during the upcoming short session.

“I think everyone can agree that our plates were kind of full last session, and so there were probably other priorities that kind of overshadowed this,” Cortes said.

While the bill has not been formally prefiled as of Thursday afternoon, Cortes said one key difference with his proposal is less onerous reporting requirements for school districts and the office of superintendent of public instruction.

“I hope that as my peers take a look at that, and they see that the fiscal impact is very, very low because of that, we should be unanimously supporting this,” Cortes said.

During the interim, Pellicciotti said his office had held roundtable discussions with more than two dozen school superintendents about financial education. Pellicciotti said his office has also partnered with the state board of education as part of the future ready process, a multiyear initiative to update high school graduation requirements in the state.

“I am confident that the legislation that’s being prefiled this week integrates both the future -ready process, hears the concerns that have been raised by school districts and school superintendents around the state, and is going to be ready to go,” Pellicciotti said. “I believe we’ve done the leg work to make this bill where it’s in a position where it’s now time to pass it.”