TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Two high school teachers from Canyon Ridge high school and Twin Falls high school have received gold star awards for their work in teaching students about financial literacy.
Canyon Ridges Jeri Henley and Twin Falls high school's Lorrain Rapp are the recipients of this honor. The awards are given by W!se to teachers that have a 93% passing rate on the W!se Financial Literacy Certification Test in at least one of their classes during the 2021-22 school year.
Financial literacy courses at this moment are not required for high school students and Henley hopes that Idaho will soon work to make the topic a requirement for high school seniors.
“I would just really hope that our state in Idaho would really push for a requirement for financial literacy for our graduating seniors,” said Henley.
Students at Canyon Ridge spoke about the class and said they are not surprised that Henley received the award. “I think it's really cool. I mean she really did a good job teaching this class. We’ve learned so much and to see her get that reward is really cool,” said Gordon Tatton, Junior at Canyon Ridge.
“I think it is super helpful for every high schooler to take because it really prepares you,” said Sophia Kapeleris, Sophomore at Canyon Ridge.
Topics like taxes, credit, banking, investing and others are cover in Henley's course and she believes the topic is critical to the success of high school students heading to college.
“A lot of parents don’t understand budgeting and credit and how all of that works and if these kids don’t get it here in high school, they are probably not going to receive it out in the real-world quote unquote,” Henley said.
