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Working with money and numbers to strengthen knowledge on budgeting.
Working with money and numbers to strengthen knowledge on budgeting.
Sophie Bernth

Should Schools Be Teaching Taxes and Budgeting?

Is the idea of schools teaching life skills such as taxes, budgeting, and smart money spending important? Why or why not?
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School is the place that is known to set you up for success. While school teaches a variety of important topics, students fear that some real-world skills may be missing from the mix.

The amount of  high schools that teach financial literacy courses is scarce. Things like taxes, mortgages, rent, and money management are essential to know when getting out of high school. 

Schools with personal finance classes still don’t cover even close to enough of what these growing adults need to know.

While taxes and budgeting  may seem like a complex thing to understand, learning about them from an early age can improve and influence children to make good financial decisions as they grow into their adult years. 

A list of ways students can improve their preparation for saving and smart money use. (Sophie Bernth)

Taxes are the funds collected by the government to finance public services and initiatives. This money goes to things such as building and roads, healthcare, education, law and order and a lot more. By teaching high schoolers about taxes, you are introducing them to financial literacy and the betterment of society.

As the transition to adulthood begins, people tend to experience lots of financial aspects that require a grasp of tax knowledge involving credits, returns, deductions, how to fill out papers and much more. 

On the other side of things, some people believe that taxes and budgeting is something you should take the time to learn on your own and should only softly be covered in classes.

“We glaze over the topic of taxes in personal finance, I don’t think it’s necessary to go more in depth especially with the rise of technology that helps with taxes nowadays,” business teacher Ryan Barnes said. 

The controversial opinion on if taxes and budgeting should be covered in schools has been going on for decades. Do you think students benefit from in-depth teachings on how to manage their adult life or do you think it’s not the schools job to cover?

About the Contributor
Sophie Bernth
Sophie Bernth, Reporter
Sophie Bernth is a freshman, this is her first year in Publications. She is taking intro to journalism. Sophie does not work anywhere but will get a job reffing soon. Sophie plays club, high school, and sand volleyball outside and inside of school. After high school Sophie wants to go to college and then into something that has to do with photography, journalism, or writing as well as travel as much as possible and keep good friends and family.