How do schools pick curriculum?

I think the article on high school students being educated in economics or finance was good as far as it went but I wonder where the rest of the story is. (Monday, “Fewer high school students study finance.”)

The article says financial literacy education isn’t mandated by the federal government. I would be interested in knowing what courses are mandated by the federal government. The article says that Washington has no requirement for financial literacy but doesn’t say what Washington does require.

I am not an advocate of federal, or even state governance of local schools. I think the article could have helped readers more by briefly telling how curriculum in local high schools are established; how much is federally mandated, state mandated, and how the “non-mandated” courses are selected.

I hope the brevity of the article is not a consequence of the reduction in newsprint size and that a bit more “in-depth” reporting could be given to your readers.

Tom Balt

Snohomish

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