personal finance

School districts in Colorado have long had the discretion to include personal-finance topics in their curriculum, but many didn’t or only gave them minimal attention. The shortcomings of the state’s decentralized approach became painfully evident last decade, when Colorado led the nation in foreclosure activity for several months in 2006. Not only did families suffer, but so did many school districts, which saw their budgets shrink along with property values and tax revenues. As part of a larger overhaul of educational standards, the Colorado legislature in 2008 mandated that personal-finance lessons be woven into the curriculum at every grade level, making the state among a handful to do so.