Center for Financial Literacy Launches Free Professional Development
Champlain College’s Center for Financial Literacy has launched a free personal finance program, available from October 1, 2025, until January 31, 2026. Developed in partnership with a grant received by EastRise Credit Union and an anonymous donor, the program provides a snapshot of the state of financial education in Vermont, as well as tools and resources for educators to integrate financial literacy in the classroom.
Educators and interested members of the public are welcome to attend online and earn up to 8 hours of professional development credit from the Champlain College Center for Financial Literacy. To register for the Vermont Financial Literacy Academy, click here.
“This program is designed to improve the financial literacy of the approximately 80,000 K-12 public education students,” says John Pelletier, Director of the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College. “It gives Vermont’s nearly 8,000 educators access to training tools and resources that can help them to successfully integrate Vermont’s personal finance education standards into their classrooms.”
The program may also be of interest to GED educators, justice-involved educators, parents of homeschooled children, social workers, Reach Up coordinators, and those who provide personal finance training to adults and representatives from community action agencies and nonprofit organizations.
“At the heart of our mission is a deep commitment to the financial wellbeing of our community members,” says Robert Miller, President and Chief Operating Officer of EastRise Credit Union. “Helping people better understand their finances isn’t just about numbers, it’s about building confidence and the ability to make informed choices that shape their futures. By supporting this program, we’re helping to build a stronger, more resilient Vermont. When our neighbors thrive, we all thrive.”
The first module is a video on the current state of personal finance education and capability in Vermont today entitled, Will Vermont Students be Left Behind? It may be viewed on-demand at any time here. You can also view a short film presentation trailer at the bottom of this webpage.
The “Why” Behind Financial Literacy
Each school in Vermont is required to provide students personal finance instruction consistent with the National Standards For Financial Literacy Education adopted by the Vermont State Board of Education in 2018. However, a March 2025 report entitled NGPF’s 2025 State of Financial Education Report indicates that only one out of five high school students in Vermont graduate from a high school that requires students to take a personal finance course prior to graduation.
“The vast majority of public Vermont high school students do not have equitable access to personal finance education,” says Pelletier. “This is the opposite of what will be happing in most states by the end of this decade.”
In August, Champlain College’s Center for Financial Literacy issued the2025 Interim Update National Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools™. This report shows that 29 states have implemented, or soon will implement by or before 2031, a personal finance course graduation requirement. That amounts to about 73% of all public high school students in the nation.
The above Champlain College report revealed that Vermont is one of only 10 states in the nation that is projected to get a grade of C, D or F for its personal finance public policy for high school students.
The video, Will Vermont Students be Left Behind?, covers important state issues. This includes a new requirement in the education reform bill that became law on July 1, 2025, H. 454 (Act 73).This bill requires that statewide graduation requirements be created for Vermont for the very first time—consistent with what is done in the vast majority of states across the nation. These new standards are required to apply for the first time to the Class of 2031.
“When it comes to financial literacy education, Vermont students will be left behind, unless the Vermont Secretary of Education and the Board of Education address this critical issue in the coming months, as required by the recently passed education reform bill,” says Pelletier.
The program features interviews with known subject matter experts, such as Vermont State Treasurer Mike Pieciak, Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders, co-founder of NextGen Personal Finance Tim Ranzetta, and other national experts.
Participants will learn how to more successfully implement the personal finance education standards and obtain free curriculum tools that may be used with the intention to implement personal finance education in the classroom.
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