IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ajo/reissc/v8y2025i2p14-24id327.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Closing the Financial Literacy Gap: The State of Financial Education in the U.S. and a Path Forward

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Molchan

Abstract

The United States faces a financial literacy crisis with widespread individual and societal impacts. Despite its importance for informed decision-making and economic well-being, financial literacy levels remain alarmingly low, with disparities across demographic groups such as women, minorities, and lower-income individuals. Current K-12 financial education efforts are inconsistent, with only a fraction of states mandating personal finance courses. Challenges such as inadequate teacher training, outdated curricula, and limited funding further hinder progress. This paper advocates for comprehensive financial education nationwide, starting in early grades and continuing through adulthood. Key recommendations include improved teacher training, culturally relevant curricula, and lifelong learning opportunities to address evolving financial complexities. Collaboration among schools, governments, businesses, and non-profits is critical to creating a robust financial literacy ecosystem. Addressing these gaps is essential to empower individuals, reduce economic disparities, and promote a more equitable and resilient financial future for all Americans.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Molchan, 2025. "Closing the Financial Literacy Gap: The State of Financial Education in the U.S. and a Path Forward," Research in Social Sciences, Academia Publishing Group, vol. 8(2), pages 14-24.
  • Handle: RePEc:ajo:reissc:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:14-24:id:327
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://academiainsight.com/index.php/riss/article/view/327/178
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial literacy; Financial education;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ajo:reissc:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:14-24:id:327. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LucĂ­a Aguado (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academiainsight.com/index.php/riss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.