Stuyvesant’s Financial Literacy Failure

Economics teacher David Wang and Principal Seung Yu met to discuss a potential new investment class designed to fulfill the New York State economics graduation requirement in the spring of 2025. In a 70-slide presentation, Wang brought poll results showing 129 students in favor of the course compared to just 21 who were not, with supporting stories of low-income Stuyvesant students eager to learn to manage their families’ finances. Principal Yu agreed that the class was needed, but was not willing to sacrifice Wang’s AP Macroeconomics sections. Thus, the class never came to fruition.

At Stuyvesant, there currently exists only one class dedicated to financial literacy: Personal Finance, taught by mathematics teacher David Peng. The class was introduced in 2021 in response to the Spectator article titled “Calculus Before Checkbooks?” by Anisha Singhal (‘23). “It was a course I proposed way back when the former principal was Principal Contreras,” Peng explained. “It was a course that I was very adamant about teaching, and I heard feedback from students that students really wanted a course on finance, how the stock market works, how to invest, how to budget, how to save money, and other finance topics,” Peng elaborated. However, despite support, the class has never expanded beyond two sections’ worth of students. “My goal has always been to make this a really important class that everyone needs to take,” Peng commented. Although the desire to expand personal finance is there, that goal has always been difficult to reach. “It requires me to teach many sections and train other teachers to teach it as well. It’s very hard for the school to justify creating more sections of Personal Finance because more sections take away from other classes,” Peng added. As long as Personal Finance remains an elective and not a graduation requirement, adding more sections of Personal Finance will require other teachers to teach fewer electives and more required classes.

The irony of prioritizing economics classes over financial literacy classes is that Stuyvesant has failed at the goal of economics: the allocation of scarce resources. When asked why it’s so difficult to find teachers to teach finance classes, Wang explained, “The main hurdle is that people who study finance don’t become public school teachers. They work at a bank; they don’t go into finance to be a high school teacher.” Although it’s true that the lack of finance courses at Stuyvesant can be attributed to a shortage of qualified teachers, the school isn’t properly utilizing the teachers that are already there. “Even though there are some qualified teachers in the building right now, we’re not actually teaching finance classes,” Wang said. There is also frustration with the school being unwilling to respond to the demand for financial literacy classes. “Even when Peng and I both want to teach finance classes, they cannot schedule enough personal finance classes somehow,” Wang elaborated. We should not be limiting passionate teachers willing to teach those classes by forcing them to teach core classes. Making use of the resources that already exist is better than using them inefficiently.

The process of mandating financial literacy classes is less complicated than people think. Stuyvesant already mandates classes beyond the Department of Education’s graduation requirements under the Stuyvesant Diploma. It’s clear in the implementation of classes such as Computer Science and Drafting that the school can mandate classes when it wants to, implying that the true problem is in prioritization. Alongside unique electives such as New York City History and Software Development, our school offers some of the most advanced classes available to high school students. Thus, it is unfortunate that it cannot offer financial literacy classes for more than 68 students at a time. Even if personal finance cannot be made a graduation requirement, it should be recognized as its own unique subject in and of itself. Wang’s proposed investment class would have focused on the stock market, as opposed to Peng’s personal finance class, which focuses much more on budgeting and banking. While enjoyable electives should always be available, there should be a greater priority for financial literacy classes because they are more practical. 

There is also the issue of logistics of adding new classes and hiring new teachers. Hiring teachers is costly, and new electives must be approved by Principal Yu. Adding an elective is simple if Principal Yu is on board, but hiring qualified teachers is much more difficult: Stuyvesant receives $12,482 in funding per student as opposed to the NYC DOE average of $22,857 per student. To combat this, one solution has already presented itself: Stuyvesant alumni greatly support this issue. The alumni association has $4,810,000 in assets as of 2024, a significant advantage over other public schools without strong alumni associations. Stuyvesant’s alumni and parent associations already fund much of Stuyvesant’s extracurricular activities, from a $1,400,000 robotics lab to paying for the salaries of some faculty. While alumni donations can only fund a massive overhaul with real action and support, we have to acknowledge Stuyvesant’s unique advantages in passionate teachers, funding, and alumni support that could make this expansion a reality.

We cannot assume that Stuyvesant’s prestigious reputation means that its students would prefer Advanced Placement courses over functional ones. How to Live, a class introduced by English teacher Mark Henderson in the spring of 2026, has been immensely popular due to its focus on “adult” topics such as taxes and familial relations. While Stuyvesant students may care deeply about academics, we care just as much about the real world as students anywhere else.

If Stuyvesant, a school with immense prestige, passionate teachers, and a multi-million dollar alumni network, cannot prioritize financial literacy, it reflects a glaring problem with the education system as a whole. When asked about the current state of the education system, Wang commented, “We’re not here to teach you how to start a business or how to become an entrepreneur. We’re just here to teach you how to be an employee.” In the present day, people choose to forgo jobs that they’re passionate for in order to do something high-paying instead. People worry about inflation, being able to provide for their families, and being able to retire comfortably. The lack of practical life skills taught in classes can be attributed to the system focusing on academics, developed in a time when credit cards didn’t exist and when people studied to become factory workers. Ultimately, this is due to the friction of trying to change an old system. Despite changing times and the shift from an industrial to an entrepreneurial workplace, our school system has not changed in response. Wang’s frustrations sum up the moral debate neatly: “The idea that you cannot do your passions and that you have to do a job for money; I don’t think that’s right.”

The Stuyvesant administration must put a greater focus on financial literacy classes, and students need to make their voices heard. Stuyvesant students are some of the most gifted and book-smart students in the country, but we are no more street-smart than anyone else. We may understand how compound interest works from Algebra II, but we may not know what the S&P 500 is. We may know how to calculate GDP, but we don’t know how to file a 1040 tax form. We’ve already studied the allocations of scarce resources enough: it’s time to put it to use.