The U.S. is facing a "crisis" because of its failure to give its grade and high school students a proper education in personal finance and decision-making, according to a report by the American Public Education Foundation.
The group, which periodically surveys the nation and issues report cards on U.S. financial literacy, found this year that two-thirds of states, including Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., earned grades of C or less for financial literacy education, with only 17 states earnings grades of A or B.
The report concluded that the results point "to a nation in crisis with regard to our schools' failure to prepare and educate K-12 students in personal finance and decision-making."
The only states to score an A were Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia. The states with an F grade were Alaska, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and South Dakota.
Multiple sources were used to score the states on their K-12 financial education programs, including course catalogs, state rules and regulations, financial literacy high school requirements and K-12 educational standards, the foundation said.
The report noted that states that got an A grade require completion of a stand-alone personal finance course for high school graduation and financial literacy standards for each grade between kindergarten and 8th grade.
States that failed do not require or guarantee any financial literacy instruction from kindergarten to 12th grade.
This year's survey was the first by the organization since 2019. Since the last survey, Nebraska and North Carolina moved from a B to an A, Alabama went from a C to a B, Vermont sent from a D to a C, and Rhode Island moved from an F to a D.
"While it is encouraging to see a few states elevate their grade since our 2019 report card, there is still a significant amount of work to do," David Pickler, a CFP who serves as executive director of the non-profit American Public Education Foundation, said in a prepared statement. "Our nation is rapidly sinking into a sea of debt and financial dependency. ... Each of us has a responsibility to change this culture, to become accountable partners in preparing our children to make sound financial choices, or face the consequences that will undermine America's future and threaten our economic and national security interests."