HB 27

"🟡 HB 27 – What It Says vs. What It Really Does

Most people will hear that House Bill 27 requires Texas students to take a financial literacy course to graduate—and think that’s a great idea. After all, who doesn’t want kids to learn how to manage money?

But once you read the full bill and follow how it changed during the legislative process, the story becomes a lot more complicated.

Here’s what you need to know:

WHAT HB 27 SAYS IT DOES:

Makes a personal finance class mandatory for high school graduation

Replaces the existing “financial literacy & economics” elective

Allows AP-level courses to count for the new requirement

WHY THAT SOUNDS GOOD:

Students will learn budgeting, saving, credit, debt, and FAFSA

Prepares them for adult life

Gives schools flexibility to use “free” materials or federal grants

BUT HERE’S WHAT HB 27 ACTUALLY DOES UNDER THE HOOD:

🔹 Strips local districts of control.
The State Board of Education (SBOE) now decides which AP courses or outside programs count. Local communities, teachers, and boards have no say.

🔹 Opens the door to private curriculum vendors.
The bill lets schools use nonprofit or corporate-created curriculum with zero vetting, bidding, or public oversight. No safeguards are in place to stop a single vendor from dominating the state market.

🔹 Quietly repeals prior safeguards.
An old rule required 2/3 of this class to be real financial education. That’s now gone. The SBOE can approve any course it calls “equivalent”—even if it’s more ideology than education.

🔹 Offers no state funding to implement.
Districts are forced to offer a new class without any money to hire teachers, train staff, or schedule new sections. That hits small and rural schools the hardest.

🔹 Delays rollout—but only to set up control.
Originally, the new rule was set to start in 2025. After Senate amendments, it now starts in 2026. That gives time for curriculum providers and test vendors to secure their place in the system.

WHO BENEFITS?

Nonprofits like Next Gen Personal Finance

Banks, credit unions, and mortgage associations that supported the bill

AP and test prep companies that want their course approved statewide

The SBOE, which now has sole authority over content and substitutes

WHO GETS SQUEEZED?

Local school boards

Teachers with no say in the new course

Students in low-income or rural districts

Parents who want transparency in what their kids are learning

WHY THIS MATTERS:
We all support the idea of financial literacy. But this bill wasn’t just about that. It started off as a good policy and ended up as a quiet power shift—one that replaces local input with vendor pipelines and state-level control.

BOTTOM LINE:
HB 27 teaches kids about money—but it also teaches us something about Texas politics:
Even “good idea” bills can be rewritten to serve the few, not the many.

👉 Follow me if you want to understand what Texas laws really do—not just what they say on the surface."