Boston City Council Pushes BPS to Require Financial Literacy Before Graduation

BOSTON -- September 25, 2025, Boston City Council education panel hears BPS financial literacy completion rates remain far below universal as members push for a graduation requirement. Councillors Edward M. Flynn, Erin J. Murphy, and Julia M. Mejia, sponsors of Docket 0318, pressed Boston Public Schools administrators on why financial literacy instruction remains optional and unevenly applied across the district's high schools. BPS Chief of Teaching and Learning Dr. Angela Hedley Mitchell described a K-12 framework that includes EverFi online modules available in 30 schools and a forthcoming AP Business with Personal Finance pilot in 2026-27. Post-secondary initiatives director Marcia Ennis Mitchell reported ninth-grade MICAP financial literacy completion jumped from 5 percent in 2023-24 to 30 percent in 2024-25, with a 100 percent completion goal set for this school year. Community advocates Steve Whalen of CityKids and Nislo Galvao of Early Investors, Inc. told the committee that 80 percent of students they surveyed rely on check-cashing services and 64 percent have never had a bank account, with Galvao noting "70,000 kids graduate high school each and every year here in Massachusetts without this basic life skill."