AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
High school brings memories of history and algebra, English and chemistry. For today's students, add money to that list. Dozens of states now require personal finance courses, and starting this year, a college-level business class is available. NPR's Stephan Bisaha reports on high schoolers learning how to make money and keep it.
STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: Today's lesson might hit close to home.
GERRI KIMBLE: Prices are rising. Food, gas, housing costs are going up. Your paycheck, however, has not.
BISAHA: Gerri Kimble teaches AP business with personal finance at Hoover High School in Alabama. It's a school that often feels more like a college with its wide-open green spaces and massive student body, the largest in the state. Today, Kimble's quizzing her semicircle of students on different scenarios that might squeeze your wallet.
KIMBLE: So what does that affect for you?
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Expenses.
KIMBLE: Expenses.
BISAHA: AP courses are college-level classes that train high schoolers for an exam at the end of the year. If they pass, they get college credit. Traditionally, these are credits for things like English, history and chemistry. Students in this business class get lessons on things like management, finances and the outside factors that can make or break a business.
BRAMLEY WILLIAMS: It's political, economic...
BRAMLEY WILLIAMS AND UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: Social.
BISAHA: Senior Bramley Williams lists them off with some of her classmates.
BRAMLEY AND UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: Technological, environmental and legal.
BRAMLEY: Yes.
BISAHA: This class was created by the College Board, which is responsible for AP classes. CEO David Coleman says, this class is based on what they heard from students in surveys and focus groups.
DAVID COLEMAN: They want to learn how to make money. They want to learn how to keep it. They want to learn how to turn their ideas into businesses and turn their ideas into a job for themselves.
BISAHA: Coleman wants this class to appeal to students who might be drawn to a more practical curriculum, rather than the more theoretical AP economics. That's already a thing. Coleman even considers business a new part of the liberal arts, putting it in the same company as core subjects like math and history.
COLEMAN: The reason why business is a liberal art today is there's a lot of change. Blockbuster skills are great until Netflix comes along. Business is the constant learning of adaptation.
BISAHA: The class also focuses on personal finance. At Hoover High, teacher Gerri Kimble asks students what they think they should do with the money they earn from their part-time jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: Put it in a - or, like, some sort of savings account.
KIMBLE: Some sort of savings account.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: You know, I probably should get some sort of savings account.
KIMBLE: OK, so tell me why. So tell me why.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #2: So it gains interest.
KIMBLE: Yeah.
BISAHA: Thirty-nine states now require a personal finance class to graduate, four more than two years ago, according to the Council for Economic Education. Senior Rachel Deschane says general business knowledge is important, too, because it teaches you how the world interacts.
RACHEL DESCHAINE: There's a business in literally everything. And so if you're willing to, like, understand and how it works, it really opens up the opportunities to a person.
BISAHA: Deschaine enrolled in this AP and other business courses for the opportunity to join in the family dinner conversations. Dad used to own a trucking company, and her brother is majoring in economics.
RACHEL: Not only does this class, like, help us learn about how to apply it, I can actually see it through, like, the conversations I speak with my dad and my brother.
BISAHA: Have you corrected your dad or brother on anything yet?
RACHEL: Not really, but I'm trying.
BISAHA: For many of these students, learning about business at a college level is a big draw. And so is the chance to earn those college credits, which, considering the cost of college today, is already a smart financial move.
Stephan Bisaha, NPR News, Birmingham, Alabama.
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