Minnesota's new graduation requirements: Learn how to manage money and participate in democracy

Minnesota lawmakers think too many high school students are earning their diplomas without a clue of how to manage their money or participate in democracy. So now those subject areas will be a requirement for graduation.

Students who enter high school in the 2024-25 school year or later must now complete a personal finance course and a class on government and citizenship before graduating.

While it won't be a graduation requirement, state lawmakers also approved a measure requiring all high schools to offer an ethnic studies course to students. And they mandated that districts include education on the Holocaust and other genocides as part of their social studies curriculum.

Here's a look at each of the changes.

Government and citizenship

Students will have to take the government and citizenship class in grade 11 or 12.

Legislators said the government and citizenship class is urgently needed, as did people who testified, who said the requirement could help better inform the electorate and mend societal divisions.

Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, spent years pushing for the change. He described the country as being in a "civic slide to failure," lamenting that more Americans can name an American Idol judge than they can their own U.S. senators.

Personal finance

The personal finance class requirement garnered bipartisan support in the DFL-controlled Legislature. Legislators said it would help students make better decisions about borrowing, saving money and balancing a budget.

The new law doesn't explicitly state which personal finance concepts should be taught.

Julie Bunn, executive director of the Minnesota Council on Economic Education at the University of Minnesota, hailed the new requirement as a "major win for greater equity in education."

The Council on Economic Education will receive grants from the state over the next two years to help schools implement personal finance programs and train teachers.

Ethnic studies, Holocaust education

High schools must offer an ethnic studies course starting in the 2026-27 school year. Elementary and middle schools have to begin providing ethnic studies instruction to students the following year.

The course may focus "specifically on a particular group of national or ethnic origin," according to the new law.

"An ethnic studies course may fulfill a social studies, language arts, arts, math, or science credit if the course meets the applicable state academic standards," the law states. "An ethnic studies course may fulfill an elective credit if the course meets applicable local standards or other requirements."

By offering an ethnic studies course in every school, Minnesota has drawn a stark contrast with GOP-led states such as Florida, which have restricted the teaching of race-related concepts.

School districts also must offer education on the Holocaust and other genocides as part of middle school and high school social studies curriculum by the 2026-27 school year.

That curriculum also must "examine the history of the genocide of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous removal from Minnesota, including the genocide, dispossession, and forced removal of the Dakota, Ojibwe, and Ho-Chunk," the law says.