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Think New Mexico urges district to make financial literacy a graduation requirement
Summary
Representatives from Think New Mexico asked the Grants-Cibola County Schools board to consider using a local credit for a financial literacy graduation requirement, offering free curriculum and paid teacher training; the board asked questions about community-specific implementation and will review policy alignment at future meetings.
Think New Mexico urged the Grants-Cibola County Schools board to consider adopting financial literacy as a high school graduation requirement, presenting research and an offer of curriculum and teacher training.
Mandy Torres, introduced by the organization's executive director, outlined the effort to push financial literacy into high school graduation requirements after a 2024 legislative attempt narrowly failed. Torres said the group now works directly with districts, noting that 49 of New Mexico's 89 districts have already adopted financial literacy in some form. She described course content (budgeting, credit, debt management, savings and investing) and cited state-level statistics the group uses to make the case: household vulnerability to high-cost lending, low rainy-day savings and broad desire for more financial education.
Fred Nathan, Think New Mexico's executive director, told the board the group can provide the NextGen Personal Finance curriculum at no cost and will pay stipends and travel for teacher professional development. "We would love to have you join," Nathan said, offering logistical and training support if the board opts to pursue a policy change.
Board members expressed interest and asked specific implementation questions: how native/community values would be built into course content, whether the course would substitute for an existing math credit or count as social studies, and whether the district could adopt a semester versus a full-year course. Mandy Torres said courses are locally adaptable and stressed working with community members and teachers to design the curriculum.
No formal board action was taken; the administration said it would review district graduation requirements and policy alignment and bring recommendations to a future meeting. Presenters emphasized that adopting the requirement would require policy changes and curriculum planning and offered to support teacher training and implementation.
