By: Joshua Kahn
Did you know that an average American will spend more than 100 hours a year doing their taxes? That’s significantly more than other activities such as going to the movies, hanging out with friends or family, playing sports, working out, shopping, and watching TV. But most high schools don’t even attempt to teach their students about the process of doing taxes. This is a big problem since students will then enter adulthood uneducated about certain aspects of their life, as a majority of schools tend to focus more on academic subjects. Instead, schools should also implement additional lessons dealing with real-life situations, such as doing one’s taxes, in order to prepare them for a less stressful life after high school.
A common problem that high school students deal with after graduation is organizing and learning how to pay their taxes. This can be extremely anxiety inducing as they essentially enter a new world, uninformed with the process of paying taxes. This stress and lack of skill can later lead them to investing money and hiring someone to do their taxes. With students who have decided to move away from home and support themselves independently financial-wise, this is an added cost which can be stressful and hard to balance on top of college tuition and personal expenses.
A solution for this issue could be money management classes for high school students. There was a bill issued in Florida that would require high school students to take money management classes in order to graduate. With these classes, students learned how to be more responsible with their money, and how they can manage their money to build a stronger future. A survey conducted by H&R Block, one of the biggest tax companies, showed that out of 2,000 American adults, 57% felt like a money management and budgeting class in high school would have helped them prepare for adulthood. This demonstrates that financial literacy classes in high schools would be beneficial and as students would demonstrate great progress not only when dealing with real life scenarios, but also strengthening their mathematic skills.
Overall, high schools should put more effort into providing students lessons that deal with paying one’s taxes. With prior experience and a little information on tax-paying, students will have one less aspect to worry about in their future.
Works Cited
New York Times. “Should All Schools Teach Financial Literacy?” The New York Times, 20 April 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/learning/should-all-schools-teach-financial-literacy.html?searchResultPosition=4. Accessed 21 October 2023.
“Florida Bill Would Require Money Management Class Before High School Graduation.” CBS News, 15 January 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/florida-bill-money-management-class-high-school-requirement/. Accessed 21 October 2023.
Renner, Ben. “Survey: Average American uses just 37% of knowledge, skills learned in high school.” Study Finds, 26 January 2019, https://studyfinds.org/survey-americans-use-37-percent-knowledge-learned-high-school/. Accessed 21 October 2023
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