Well-written piece - by a high school senior-to-be no less. The author may already be too wise - financially - to work as a reporter at a newspaper. But maybe the demand for real journalists will increase as Americans learn that lying self-serving politicians, monied special interest groups and foreign government operatives threaten the continued existence of representative democracy in America - and even life on planet Earth. Going more directly to the piece, I gather the author wants state legislation requiring some instruction in financial literacy. Meanwhile, students should educate themselves and make any teaching proposals to teachers and other decision-makers in the public and private schools.

Berkeley policy professor and Obama administration advisor David Kirp has long advocated for public funding of children's college savings accounts (CSAs).

The amounts can be small, but their impact can be big if institutions like schools (or cities) funded them very early on, seeding path to college/advanced career training, and also allowing children and families to practice financial investments as they age.

The goal of publicly funded college saving accounts for socio-economically disadvantaged families is not to locally fund the entire cost of college, but to nudge habits over a lifetime to contribute to one's own additional investments. The amount given can be very modest, well within the per-pupil spending of schools, and can be funded by private companies/donors too.

More on David Kirp's work on life-changing community policies towards children:
Web Link
More on the research behind CSAs: Web Link

Well written, Parth, and very important.

I graduated from high school in 1970, and middle-class kids of my generation usually got a small weekly allowance starting around age 8, but most of our money came from small jobs done for our parents or neighbors. Boys mowed lawns, raked leaves, or had paper routes. Girls mostly baby sat. In the summer, some of the more ambitious kids would be bussed to nearby strawberry fields to pick fruit for a few hours each morning. (I lived in a small city, and the farms were only a few miles away.) By age 16 many kids had after school jobs and many had summer jobs. A local bank offered kids from first grade on the chance to open a savings account that we contributed to by putting a few coins into an envelope each week at school, which somehow got deposited to our account. As you point out, the "virtualization" of money into apps makes it harder to get a "feel" for the amounts we earn and spend. I was taught that there were really only two things one should take out a loan for: paying for college and buying a home. I haven't adhered to that advice completely, but I think it's still a wise approach.

Personal finance, the nuts and bolts of budgeting, paying bills (not day trading and startups) should be required of all High School graduates. BTW In and out is paying near $20 an hour, big banner posted. I guess these kids are too well funded by mom and dad to bother working.