A major issue facing today’s students is the daunting tuition and fees that accompany the quest for a diploma. The vast majority of college kids will admit to having a large amount of debt in the form of student loans. This matter could be made worse by the lack of education given to teenagers on the topics of wisely spending and saving money.

According to a recent study by LendEDU, a student loan refinancing company, 43 percent of students do not know the difference between a debit card and a credit card. To make matters worse, 58 percent of college kids reported that they are not saving money each month.

When asked about their financial education, 21 percent of students said that their parents gave them specific instruction on how to manage money. Inside a school setting, 14 percent reported taking a class dealing with handling funds in high school, and only 34 percent claimed to have taken a college course on the subject.

According to the Council for Economic Education’s annual Survey of the States, only 17 states require high school students to take a class in personal finance — a number that hasn’t budged in the past 2 years. Though the course may not be a requirement for all high-school students, 45 states include personal finance in their K-12 standards, meaning that the topic is actually taught in the classroom to some extent.

According to Nan Morrison, the president and CEO of the Council for Economic Education, the states teaching their students about personal finance place an emphasis on the applicable aspects of the subject.

“These classes are designed to demystify money management, to give students a basic vocabulary to make good choices,” said Morrison. “To be successful, most kids don’t need to learn about collateralized debt instruments, but they do need to know how to open a bank account, how much they need to save each month to reach their goals, and if they borrow this amount of money, how much money they will need to earn to pay it back.”

Considering only 7 percent of students surveyed answered “very knowledgeable” when asked how knowledgeable they were regarding financial investments, the idea of more states adding personal finance into the curriculum seems to many like a plan for progress.

Discover, a well-known bank and credit card company, conducted a study asking high school seniors how taking a class on managing their money affected their bank account. The study found that 93 percent of students who had taken a course on the topic were more likely to save money, compared to 84 percent of students who had not taken such a course.

Here at UNC Wilmington, almost 20 classes are offered on the subject of finance, and many of them are open to absolutely any major. The most recommended course for students looking to gain some basic insight into how to handle their expenses is FIN 235, a personal finance class designed for non-business majors.

The statistics reported by LendEDU are certainly alarming, yet there has been some indication that the resources to learn about responsible investments are becoming more readily available to students. The recent studies revealing the surprising amount of students lacking confidence in their financial knowledge have brought attention to the matter that encourage public school system administrators to offer courses in finance.