Students at Coral Gables Senior High, Miami Palmetto Senior High, and Miami-Dade magnet schools will soon be required to pass a standalone personal finance course before they can graduate. The mandate is already reshaping what local classrooms look like.
The Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, requires all Florida public high school students who entered ninth grade in the 2023-24 school year or later to complete a half-credit personal finance course. The Class of 2027 will be the first to graduate under the full requirement, according to NBC Miami.
The course covers banking practices, credit scores, debt management, loan applications, insurance policies, and local tax assessments.
Martha Delgado, a personal finance teacher at Robert Morgan High School in Miami-Dade, told NBC Miami in December 2025 that her students are gaining skills many adults wish they'd had. "They're learning about when you go to get loans, how do the loans work, compound interest, simple interest, things that I would've loved to have when I was growing up as an adult and applying for a loan for a house or a loan for a car," Delgado said.
The stakes are real. The average federal student loan balance per borrower climbed from $18,200 in 2007 to $39,500 in 2025, according to U.S. Department of Education data compiled by the Education Data Initiative, a nonprofit research organization. Adults who grew up in Miami-Dade carried average credit scores below the national average and student loan balances around $18,000 as of 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau data reflecting residents born between 1978 and 1985.
The law passed the Florida Legislature with unanimous bipartisan support and 35 co-sponsors. Rep. Demi Busatta Cabrera, the House sponsor, said in 2022 that every student deserves to be equipped with financial knowledge regardless of whether they pursue college, a trade, the military, or the arts.
Oscar Pinto, a senior at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami-Dade, argued in a Tuesday, July 14, column in the Biscayne Bay Tribune that the classroom requirement alone won't close the gap. Pinto wrote that parents and community leaders play a vital role by having open conversations about family budgeting, banking, and responsible spending before students receive their first credit card or loan offer.
Florida is now one of 29 states requiring a standalone personal finance course for high school graduation. The M-DCPS 2026-27 school year begins Thursday, August 13, with teacher planning days running Monday, August 10, through Wednesday, August 12. Current sophomores and juniors at Coral Gables Senior High and Palmetto must complete the course before they receive their diplomas.
