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Thursday, July 17, 2025 at 2:04 PM

School District mandates personal finance class – Lund receives grant

School District mandates personal finance class – Lund receives grant
Keith Lund with partners from Financial Horizon Credit Union which has also supported the financial literacy class at the high school with their "Bite of Reality" program

Author: Rachel Dahl

Keith Lund, an educator and athletics coach at Churchill County High School, has received a $10,000 grant to help with his instruction of a Personal Finance class at the high school. Last fall, the School Board of Trustees mandated that beginning with the class of 2023, each student must take a semester of personal finance in order to graduate.
At that time, Lund approached Superintendent Summer Stephens to get her support to apply for the grant through the Next Gen Personal Finance organization. Next Gen is an organization dedicated to revolutionizing the teaching of personal finance in all schools in order to improve the financial lives of the next generation of Americans.
According to the Next Gen website, in 2014, Tim and Jessica Endlich founded Next Gen Personal Finance as a non-profit organization to partner with teachers by sharing timely and relevant curricular resources, providing effective professional development, and advocating to increase access to financial education. Given the organization's commitment to reach ALL students, NGPF provides its curriculum and PD at no cost to schools.
Lund said that Stephens was completely supportive of his application. “She was behind me 100%.”
In order to receive the grant, Lund made a presentation to the board about requiring Personal Finance for all high school graduates. He said, “I had the backing of many people in the community and a few were at the board meeting to express support.”
 
Because the school board had increased graduation credits by one-half of a credit, they were able to fit in the personal finance class as a required class for graduation.
 
“If it wasn’t for the increase in credits, I don’t think it would have happened,” Lund said.
 
Next year the requirement will kick in and all Churchill County High School graduates will have to take the Personal Finance class.
 
Lund received the $10,000 grant to be used for future projects and strategies to make the class beneficial for all the students in attendance.
 
On their website, Next Gen recognized Lund for his work on behalf of the students in Churchill County. “Keith Lund is an educator and Changemaker from Churchill County High School in Fallon, Nevada. After years of Keith's proposals to make personal finance a graduation requirement, Churchill County adopted the graduation requirement during the 2019 school year, making the high school the 35th in the nation to earn NGPF's Gold Standard Challenge grant in the process!
 
Next Gen often references a paper and brief, authored by Jeremy Burke, J. Michael Collins, and Carly Urban, which estimates the effect of required high school financial education on the financial well-being of young adults. The paper defines financial well-being as including a person’s sense of financial management, as well as their confidence in achieving their own unique financial goals. The study showed that financial education improves financial well-being.
 
Summer Stephens, superintendent for the district said she is pleased about this direction for students. “The district is pleased to be able to put the graduation requirement into place for the class of 2023 and beyond. We know that a key to being life ready is to be fully prepared with financial literacy.”
 
 
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Josh W. 10/07/2020 01:11 PM
I think a personal finance class is a great idea. I would like to know what the instruction would entail. For example, teaching kids to get credit cards and borrow money is more destructive than no instruction at all. Teaching kids to do a written, zero based budget, save up an emergency fund, invest and give (all taught by Dave Ramsey BTW), and to live within your means is the correct way. I learned the wrong approach to finances but thankfully found the correct way before it was too late. I would never want any student to be led down the wrong path. All of my children are completely debt free and will comment on how their friends are buried in debt in their early 20's. I also remember my oldest son telling me about his finance teacher (at CCHS) telling him how to get a credit card as well as other terrible information (that I had to correct later). So, if personal finance is going to be taught, it should be done correctly so our future leaders understand why borrowing money is rarely a good idea.

M
Monte Werle 10/06/2020 06:23 PM
Great work!

Montana Werle 10/06/2020 06:14 PM
Nice work Mr. Lund. The whole country should follow in your foot steps. ??? https://www.facebook.com/groups/1819934584812646/?ref=share

Ellen Johnson 10/06/2020 08:41 AM
Kudos to Mr. Lund, the school board and Superintendent Stephens!

COMMENTS
Comment author: Mike HinzComment text: I knew Sam as a member of our church growing up. He always had a warm smile, a kind word, and a great sense of humor! He will be great missed!Comment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:57 AMComment source: Obituary -- Samuel Bruce WickizerComment author: Mike HinzComment text: Great teacher, great coach, but even a better person!!! Rest in peace Mr. BeachComment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:53 AMComment source: Obituary -- Jack Victor Beach, Jr.Comment author: Mike HinzComment text: I had Mrs Hedges for First Grade at Northside Elementary in 1969. I still, to this day, remember her as a wonderful teacher…one of my favorites!!Comment publication date: 7/2/25, 11:29 AMComment source: Obituary - Nancy Marie Hedges C Comment author: Carl C. HagenComment text: What are MFNs and PBMs ?? ............................ From the editor: This is a very good question and we apologize for not catching that wasn't in there. We reached out to the writer/submitter and got this info back...hope it's helpful. PBM: Pharmacy Benefit Managers are pharmacies that are owned by insurance companies. (CVS is one.) They negotiate with drug makers to get reduced pricing for medications, but they historically have not passed along those savings to patients. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/pharmacy-benefit-managers-staff-report.pdf MFN: Most Favored Nation pricing is a policy that means a country agrees to offer the same trade concessions (like tariffs or price reductions) to all member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO). When applied to pharmaceuticals, it could disrupt global access, deter innovation, and obscure the deeper systemic issues in American health care. https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2025/05/22/the-global-risks-of-americas-most-favored-nation-drug-pricing-policy/Comment publication date: 6/23/25, 7:47 AMComment source: L E T T E R TO THE EDITOR
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