Our vision in this program area is that every high school graduate in the U.S. leaves school equipped with the financial literacy skills they need to meet the challenges of 21st century global society.

Five milestones are commonly understood as markers of adulthood: completing one’s education, establishing an independent household, finding work, forming a long-term partnership, and having children. Compared with much of the 20th century, young adults in the U.S. now take longer to reach these markers today. In earlier eras, many young people could reach financial independence with limited additional training beyond high school. Today, financial stability requires navigating complex systems of education costs, credit, and debt. Students who do not learn these skills at home are therefore placed at a significant disadvantage - making financial literacy in high school a matter of equity, not enrichment. 

As Nancy E. Hill, Developmental Psychologist at the Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, has noted:

"Young adults are not less mature today than in the past. Neither are they necessarily more self-centered. We are not the first researchers to challenge the idea of “emerging adulthood” as a distinct life stage, but we have new historical data that help us understand when and why youth feel they need more time to become adults. Our findings tell us something important: When young adults take longer to achieve the markers of adulthood, it is not that something has changed about them; it is that the world has changed."

Rauch is proud to partner with two outstanding programs in the Financial Literacy field – Champlain College’s Center for Financial Literacy and Next Gen Personal Finance. Both are dedicated to making financial literacy a high school requirement in all fifty states and to ensuring effective implementation by equipping school districts and educators with the tools and resources they need to reach their students.