Opinion | Dave Ramseys punitive finance advice has no place in Florida schools

July 28, 2024

The past year has seen an acceleration of news reports about books banned in Florida public schools. They range from picture books such as “And Tango Makes Three,” about two male penguins who raise a young chick together, to classic novels by Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, including “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye.”

But there’s a flip side to the book bans under Republican Ron DeSantis’s governorship. It’s the curriculum the state approves for public school classrooms.

Last week, Pasco County Schools in suburban Tampa held a public reconsideration hearing on its use of right-wing, evangelical personal finance pundit Dave Ramsey’s religiously inspired and sometimes factually challenged textbook in the school’s financial literacy classes. Florida high school students are required to take such a course before graduating. The district moved to use the book earlier this year, after Florida’s Board of Education put it on its list of approved materials.

“As soon as it was on my radar, I was concerned,” Jessica Wright, a social studies teacher and Pasco County parent who serves on the Florida Freedom to Read Project’s board, told me. “I’m aware of how political Ramsey is and that in some ways he’s a right-wing pundit, and I didn’t think that type of controversy would be appropriate in our classrooms.”

Ramsey is a popular radio show and podcast host, a male counterpart of sorts to Suze Orman. His goal is to help change people’s lives for the better by getting and keeping people out of debt and doling out common-sense financial advice in the spirit, as he puts it, of “God and Grandma.”

But there’s a nastier side. Ramsey, who did not respond to requests for comment, preaches a radical self-help philosophy and routinely blames individuals for their financial woes. He makes frequent appearances on Fox News, where he bashes people who need government help. He calls the actions of debtors “stupid” on a regular basis.

This attitude leads to less-than-optimal financial advice — some of which is presented as common-sense guidance in his textbook, “Foundations in Personal Finance.”

Ramsey so hates credit cards, he tells teenagers they “don’t need a credit score” because “debt-free people don’t need a credit score!” (Good luck getting your own lease on an apartment without one.)

He advises against student loans, telling teens and their parents to save up money and apply for scholarships. (Reality check: More than half of 2023 college graduates took out a student loan.)

Car leases and loans are a no-no for Ramsey, too — which sounds good till you remember how poor public transit is in much of the United States, and that in many places people can’t work if they don’t own a car.

Ramsey tells students that if they have debt, they should pay it down by tackling the smallest debt first — something known as the “snowball method” — so they can score a motivational win. But this strategy can cost them significant money in the long run if they have a larger debt with a higher interest rate.

Then there is the religious angle. Ramsey’s budgeting advice begins with telling students “giving is your first priority in your budget” and instructing them to give away 10 percent of their income — which sounds suspiciously like tithing. Proverbs from the Bible are sprinkled throughout the text.

Taken together, this isn’t a solid financial education. It’s indoctrination — in Ramsey’s brand, religious beliefs and sometimes not-financially-sound worldview.

Not surprisingly, some Pasco County parents are saying the district’s decision to use Ramsey’s book doesn’t make for a good education.

In complaints filed with the district and obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project, several dozen parents made their dismay known. “This advice is literally removing people from the possibility of entrepreneurship and home ownership. Students should learn about managing credit and compounding interest rather than Ramsey’s misguided theories,” parent Lisa Moretti wrote. “Children would be absolutely set up for failure,” added Land O Lakes parent Amy Hays. “You’d be hard pressed to find someone that can buy a home today without ever having a line of credit, a loan, or debt at some point.”

At last week’s hearing, district officials defended their decision, saying they considered the biblical quotes on par with others in the book, from notables such as Albert Einstein. When I wrote to the district and asked about Ramsey’s advice, they said the curriculum outlined in his book met the standards set by Florida’s Board of Education, which they suggested I contact.

The board, in turn, did not reply to requests for comment.

I’ve written in the past about my issues with the widely popular financial literacy movement. Though it sounds like common sense, it is anything but. One study found that almost no one can recall much of their financial education within a few years. Then there is the bigger, overarching failure: It is a movement that preaches an individual solution to broad economic and political problems that affect people in diverse circumstances in different ways.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with offering students a financial literacy class — provided the advice in it is accurate and useful. That’s not what’s happening in Pasco County, or in districts in other red states, including Wyoming and Utah, where Ramsey’s curriculum is approved for use by local schools.

Ramsey has no education credentials and no significant professional financial training. He is simply someone who merged evangelical teachings with his own personal finance and political beliefs and became a star.

If an adult wants to seek financial guidance from Ramsey, that’s their business. But his agenda does not belong in the nation’s public schools. Here’s hoping that this time Pasco County Schools, which is expected to announce its decision on Ramsey’s book by the end of the month, gets the answer right.

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