MONROE, Mich. (WTVG) – There’s a new graduation requirement in Michigan high schools. What started as an elective course is now required for students to receive their diplomas.

Michigan high school students will now be required to take a financial literacy course to graduate and prepare for life after graduation.

Interest rates, using credit and investing are all things that are common to adults. But now they will become familiar to Michigan high school students, too, because a financial literacy course is now a graduation requirement.

“You see a lot of students graduate from high school and go to college and get into debt. They don’t realize how important it is to have a good credit score for future loans to get better interest rates. So we really try to instill in kids how important it is to start with a strong financial foundation from the very beginning,” said Anne Knabusch, a CTE business teacher at Monroe High School.

Her students learn how to budget, prepare net worth statements, and write checks.

When asked if Joshua Sutton, a senior at Monroe High School, knew how to do it before he started taking the class, he replied, “Nothing. I didn’t realize how much he actually put into it.”

However, Sutton said he now feels better prepared to manage his money.

“I had gotten a job before I started taking her classes. I was saving a little bit, but not a lot. And then after I started taking her classes and learned to have a backup just in case, it really helped me save more,” Sutton said.

Maci Willey, a senior at Monroe High School, said the same thing affected her.

“Without that, I would have no idea. I think everyone needs an opportunity to experience that, to go through that, to know what the real world is like. You’re not going to be under your parents’ care anymore. You have to know how to do that,” Willey said.

Monroe school leaders said this will help Michiganders achieve financial success in the future.

The school also partnered with Monroe Community Credit Union to host a financial reality fair for third-grade students at the end of the school year.

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