Wichita ? A Wichita legislator wants to make financial literacy a requirement for high school graduation in Kansas.

Rep. Melody McCray-Miller, a Democrat, says she’s working on a proposal to make sure schools teach children about personal finance from kindergarten through the 12th grade. She says she worries about Americans’ increasing debt and their use of payday loans.

She’s working on a bill to introduce after the Legislature convenes its annual session Jan. 12.

“Bad debt is a drag, and we are seeing that firsthand nationally,” McCray-Miller told The Wichita Eagle. “Instead of being a debtor nation, we need to be educated.”

A 2003 law already required the State Board of Education to develop guidelines for lesson plans on financial literacy and to help school districts start programs.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jean Schodorf, a Wichita Republican who helped draft the existing law, said some school districts do include financial literacy in their lesson plans.

“It is not as comprehensive as we had perhaps hoped,” said Schodorf, who plans to support McCray-Miller’s proposal.

A Department of Education survey last year showed most teachers still don’t deal with the topic. Board member Carol Rupe, a Wichita Republican, says no one seems to “own” the topic, and therefore, it doesn’t get taught.

Rupe compared education about personal finances with sex education. She said that if students are going to learn correct information, schools must provide it.

“The whole area of financial literacy, most students don’t know because they certainly couldn’t have learned it from their parents because their parents don’t know,” she said.

McCray-Miller said she’s still working on the details of her proposal. But ideally, she said, financial literacy would be required for graduation.

“We as a state already have the building blocks for it,” she said. “Now we need to hardwire where it is going to happen and we have to plan for it.”