Abstract

The push for financial literacy in public schools has gained considerable momentum in recent years. Agencies such as the Council for Economic Education and the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Finance Literacy have made tremendous strides in the effort to make financial education an integral component of the curriculum within the four walls of America’s classrooms. Although no current policy exists that requires schools to include personal finance in its educational course of study, several states have made their own decision to infuse such into what their students learn. Using the conceptual framework of distributed leadership, this article explores a strategy in which federal, state, and local leaders can work in concert to provide adequate financial literacy education for public school students. As each agency contributes within its own sphere of influence toward the bolstering of financial literacy within the American educational system, students become better equipped at integrating key matters of personal finance into their life beyond formal schooling.