SANTA FE, N.M. — You may remember taking high school algebra, biology, maybe an elective like building trades or culinary arts.

Students these days even take classes on personal financial literacy. Legislation stipulates high schools must have it as an elective.

Now, it’s a high school graduation requirement.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed House Bill 171 into law earlier this month. It adds personal financial literacy as a social studies coursework requirement and lets schools mandate it as a math requirement.

Charlie Bergman teaches personal financial literacy at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He launched the course after teaching it to students at Albuquerque Academy.

“They’re psychologically ready for it. They do well, at it, they’re interested,” Bergman said.

The coursework he teaches in a college setting would translate to a high school classroom, with questions like:

“If I’m paying a 25% APR interest rate on a credit card, and I have a carryover debt that I haven’t paid off of $1,000. And I carry that for two years because I’m just not paying it off, how much do I owe?”

Bergman says he likes the new requirements but believes this is just the beginning.

St. John’s College offers $500 in an investment account for anyone who passes the final test in Bergman’s course.

Bergman believes legislators could implement something like that for high school students.

“Take part of the state budget and make an allocation to students who complete a really good financial literacy course as a reward. Then, that money could be managed for them by a trustee for the state for a while, but at some point in adulthood, they get control,” he offered.

Bergman is working with the New Mexico Public Education Department and financial institutions, like Nusenda Credit Union, to offer teacher workshops in the fall.

Read HB 171 below.

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• New financial literacy course could soon come to New Mexico high schools
• New Mexico governor signs off on new high school graduation requirements