upworthy

personal finance

Schools

America's race to the top in education is likely responsible for the financial illiteracy crisis

We were once chastised for schools focusing "too much" on preparing kids for adulthood.

Photo credit: Canva

America's competition with Russia likely created the U.S. financial literacy crisis

There are often jokes about kids not knowing how to write a check or how to do other basic adulting tasks, though no one really writes checks anymore. But it's not just teens or young adults that lack some of these basic life skills, there are people in their 30s and 40s that don't fully understand how interest works.

Due to economic disparities across the country, all schools don't receive the same standard education. Some schools require students to take classes like life skills, adult skills, career readiness, or financial literacy classes as part of their graduation requirements. In other schools they're there as electives while some schools don't offer those classes at all leaving students underprepared for adulthood.

This wasn't always the case though, at one point in the history of American education, these sorts of classes were the norm. This ensured that students graduating in America had basic financial literacy and adult skills. So what happened?

man and woman sitting on chairs Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

"Based on old teaching materials, it seems that up until the fifties or sixties, money management was a fixture in the public school curriculum, often as part of home economics class. Alongside, you know, sewing and baking, students were learning how to budget for better living, use consumer credit and save for their weddings. There were also stand along consumer education classes, which seemed to be less gendered." Vox says.

Public schools shifted from this useful norm in 1958 when President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act after feeling America was falling behind Russia. This was during the big race to get into outer space and Russia, then known as the USSR, seemed to be coming out ahead. The bill was designed to focus on core classes like math, science and a foreign language, but after the Department of Education was formed, their first report was scathing.

grayscale photography of children sitting inside room Photo by Austrian National Library on Unsplash

In 1983, the Department of Education released a report titled "The Imperative for Education Reform," which basically blamed the country's "declining educational performance" on schools focus on adulthood.

"Twenty-five percent of the credits earned by general track high school students are in physical and health education, work experience outside the school, remedial English and mathematics, and personal service and development courses, such as training for adulthood and marriage," the report scolds.

This sharp critique resulted in several subsequent presidents to focus on ways to measure educational progress in the areas Eisenhower and the Department of Education originally outlined. Standardized testing became a heavy source of measurement, oftentimes tied to teachers maintaining their employment. For many students this meant their education revolved around the teacher prioritizing items that would be measured on the standardized test.


The shift to strict measurement of growth via standardized testing caused students to fall behind on other much needed skills. Americans have been noticing the shift in not only adult skills, but financial literacy and it's been a multi-decade slide that seems to be changing trajectory in recent years.

In a 2019 National Bureau of Economic Research study, researchers report that 57% of U.S. adults are financially illiterate. Vox reports that over the past decades more students are spending full semesters in financial literacy classes, learning things like budgeting, taxes, student loans and more. Though more states are offering these courses to high school students, only nine states have a stand-alone financial literacy course as a graduation requirement.

Other states offer the lessons within the framework of another class or as a stand-alone elective course, though in 2024 seven additional states introduced legislation to make the course mandatory. Financial literacy not only helps the individual, but their family and eventually the economy, so hopefully we will see these personal finance courses reintroduced nationwide.

From Your Site Articles
department of education
SchoolsPolicyEducation
Pop Culture

How much money do you need to make to be considered 'middle class' in the U.S.?

The income thresholds vary widely, but it still feels like these figures just can't be right.

Photo by Pixabay (via Pexels)

For many, the American middle class doesn't feel like it used to.

The U.S. middle class has long been a symbol of American prosperity, a promise that freedom, opportunity and hard work will provide your family a reasonably comfortable life, even if you don't strike it rich. In the past, an average middle class family could presumably afford to buy a modest home and take the family on fun-but-not-extravagant vacations. Not living luxuriously, but easily affording the basics, building up some savings and enjoying a little wiggle room in the budget for occasional extras. A nice, secure life.

But the reality of the middle class has shifted over the decades. Not only is the middle class shrinking, according to government statistics analyzed by Pew Research, but many people who fall into the middle class income-wise aren't feeling any sense of financial security. Approximately half of Americans are classified as middle class, down from 61 percent in 1971, and those who fall within middle class income thresholds can often feel like they're barely making ends meet.

When a TikTok user asked middle class families to share how much money they have in savings, the responses were eye-opening. Many middle class Americans say they have nothing in savings, and not for lack of trying. There's always some expense that comes up. Especially for those on the lower end of the spectrum of middle-class incomes, it can feel like living one emergency away from financial doom.

So how much money do you need to actually make to be considered middle class in the U.S.?

To compare middle class household income ranges by state, SmartAsset analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data using Pew Research's definition of middle class, which defines the middle class salary range as two-thirds to double the median U.S. salary. New Jersey came in at the highest range at $64,224 to $192,692 and Mississippi came in the lowest at $35,142 to $105,438.

Here are the rankings in order:

There are even bigger variations between cities. The highest middle class income range in SmartAsset's list of 345 cities is Sunnyvale, California (near San Jose) at $113,176 to $339,562 and the lowest range is Detroit, Michigan at $24,300 to $72,906.

Cost of living varies a lot, as we all know, so it's understandable that middle class income in the Silicon Valley wouldn't be the same as middle class income in the Midwest.



But the differences from place to place are arguably easier to digest than the differences within the ranges themselves. There's an ocean of difference between a household income of $50,000 and a household income of $150,000, no matter where you live. For most families I know, the low end of the income range in my state would be a huge stretch to even live on while the upper end would mean complete financial security. How can the entire range be considered middle class?

Interestingly, the past decade or so has seen middle class income ranges rise dramatically. According to GoBankingRates' analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, the household income required to be considered middle class increased by 41.67% overall from 2012 to 2022, with Oregon, Washington and Colorado each seeing an increase of over 50% during that time frame. People are making more money, but people also feel like their dollar isn't going as far.

Is that true, though? According to Investopedia, Americans overall are making more money than ever and are wealthier than every by nearly ever measure, even accounting for inflation. But at the same time, more Americans feel poorer. There are several possible reasons for that. One is the surge in housing prices increasing homeowners' net worth without adding actual, spendable dollars to their bank accounts. Another, as Investopedia points out, is that broad averages mask greater disparities between people's wealth—in other words, the rich are getting richer at higher rates than the average American. People also may still feel shaken by the pandemic's economic fallout. That sense of insecurity from an unprecedented global event may still linger in people's minds, making them feel financially unstable even if that's not their actual reality on paper.

And then there's the lens of partisan politics that can color people's perceptions. Half the country tends to see the economy negatively when one party is in power and the other half sees it negatively when the other party is in power. We also shouldn't discount the role that aspirational social media plays, with feeds pushing plush vacations and perfectly curated luxury homes, altering people's expectations of what life should look like.

Of course, some middle class folks really are financially struggling, and again, those lower income thresholds do feel incredibly low for most households. Perhaps it's time to shift the definition of "middle class" to be more reflective of how those incomes are experienced by real families rather than simply a percentage calculation that feels way off from reality.

From Your Site Articles
finance
Pop CultureInternet
Trending Stories