A bill calling for public schools to teach personal finance in grades K-12 has been re-filed at the State House.

High school students are getting credit card offers and check cashers have sprung up where there never were any before.

But the new financial options, available to young adults and others, come with a price: Those who don’t understand them are running up debt and ruining their credit before they’re even out of college.

The consequences are far-reaching. Everything from family strife to being denied a job or housing can be chalked up to money problems, according to Rep. Stephen LeDuc, D-Marlborough, and those who support the bill he’s re-filed this legislative session that would require public schools to teach personal finance in grades K-12.

LeDuc, sponsor of House Bill 498, known as An Act Establishing a Financial Literacy Curriculum, said his own childhood experience in a home without financial savvy inspired him to suggest the requirement.

“Those termination notices were always on the refrigerator – electric bills, mortgages – financial practices were not held in high regard at my house, and we paid a steep price for it,” he told the Joint Committee on Education, on which he sits and where he testified for his bill on May 15.

Adding new curriculum requirements could be controversial in the age of MCAS, but LeDuc is hopeful his proposal will succeed this time around.

He’s gathered many supporters. Two similar bills have been filed by legislative colleagues: H. 410, by Rep. Sean Curran, D-Springfield; and H. 411, by Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Haverhill. Fourteen more have signed on to LeDuc’s version.

The Massachusetts Credit Union League, Massachusetts Bankers Association, Massachusetts Mortgage Association and Massachusetts Mortgage Bankers Association also support making personal finance a curriculum requirement, as do the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., state Treasurer Timothy Cahill, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, Consumer Credit Counseling Services and Homeowner Options for Mass Elders (HOME).

The education committee hasn’t yet voted on the bill, but seems supportive. The Massachusetts Teachers Association didn’t return a call from Banker & Tradesman seeking comment.

At the local level, Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty has said he believes lack of financial education drove many homeowners into the hands of predatory lenders. He hopes to introduce financial literacy training for youths into the city’s summer jobs program this year.

Flaherty is not formally behind LeDuc’s bill, which he hasn’t seen yet, but the two have been in contact about it, according to a Flaherty staff member.

Massachusetts already offers financial literacy training to any public high school teacher who wants it, said OCABR Director Dan Crane. More than 650 teachers, representing 160 high schools, have been trained to teach the High School Financial Literacy Program (HiFi) since it was first offered two years ago, he noted. They receive professional development credits with the idea that they will integrate what they learn into their lesson plans.

Crane said the state is not thrilled that on a nationwide financial literacy survey last year, Massachusetts high school seniors answered just 55 percent of the questions correctly. Nationwide, students scored at 52 percent.

‘Bottom Feeders’
Legislators and trade group representatives testifying in favor of H. 498 at the State House last week told anecdotes about their own children or students they know who are smart but haven’t got the first idea about financial basics.

“I was very surprised by the level of basic financial information that college students don’t have,” said Eugene Foley, president and chief executive officer of the Harvard University Credit Union.

Foley said he often tells students that a good credit score will matter more in their lives than a high grade-point average.

Students today are offered all sorts of credit opportunities they never would have had a generation ago, he added, and they are ill-prepared. And it’s not that they aren’t interested: According to Foley, during the past year HUCU offered a semester-long financial literacy program which 500 students attended.

Foley said he decided to develop and teach the curriculum himself after first investigating the possibility of contracting the instruction out to a third party.

“I discovered there are a lot of bottom feeders out there” who have hidden agendas, he noted.

The experience, Foley added, reinforced his belief that financial literacy should be developed and taught in the schools.

Sixteen states currently require some type of personal financial literacy education in public schools, but only one – New Hampshire – is in New England.

Students who do take the classes say they’re worth it. Three students who attend Noonan Business Academy, a public business-oriented high school in Dorchester, told the education committee that they’re learning things about credit scores and credit cards that their peers don’t know, but should.

“I know I’ll be using this education throughout my life,” said Glenny Reynoso, a senior at the academy who will attend Northeastern University next year.

Digital Federal Credit Union Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning Tim Garner said people without financial training are more likely to be shut out of job opportunities and become fraud victims – and are likely to pass on those problems, as they won’t be equipped to teach the skills to their children.

LeDuc said he’s sensitive to the fact that schools have many existing curriculum requirements and it might be difficult to add another. Personal finance could be incorporated into existing math curricula instead of creating an entirely new course, he suggested.

“We’re willing to work with the Department of Education, Mass. Teachers Association and the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to develop something that works,” he said.

LeDuc’s bill passed the education committee hurdle last year but didn’t make it out of Ways and Means, the committee that considers all bills affecting state finances.

The cost to develop and implement a personal finance curriculum has not yet been estimated, according to LeDuc aide Robert Fitzpatrick, who explained that it would depend on how the state decides it should be done.