Harding wishes schools could expand Business course offerings

By Scott Benjamin

BROOKFIELD – If Business is by far the most popular college major nationally, then why do so few high school students ever take a business class?

“That’s an interesting question,” said state Rep. Stephen Harding (R-107) of Brookfield, who took a class in Accounting and one in Marketing while attending Brookfield High School (BHS) in the 2000s.

He acknowledged in an interview that statewide many high schools have far fewer teachers in Business than they do in the core subjects of Science, English, Math and Social Studies.

Writing in Consumer Affairs, Mark Huffman stated that nationally only one is six high school graduates take a course in personal finance.

Yet, the National Center For Education Statistics reports that in 2015-16 there were 372,000 college students majoring in business – almost twice as many as the next two most popular subject areas combined – Health Professions with 229.000 and Social Sciences/History with 161,000.

Huffman stated that only five states - Alabama, Utah, Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri – require one semester of financial literacy to graduate from high school.

Wouldn’t it be better to reduce instruction slightly in some of the core areas and make it a requirement that to graduate from high school you have to take at least one Business course, since so many students go on to study it in college?

“I think there needs to be more of a focus on business education,” said Harding, who said he received feedback from a constituent on exploring ways to provide more Business education in middle schools and high schools.

The state representative - whose district includes Brookfield, the Stony Hill section of Bethel and a slice of northern Danbury – said he is seeking to have the state Department of Education establish a task force on the topic.

Harding, who served on the Brookfield Board of Education from 2013 to 2017, said he believes the limited amount of high school Business education if primarily due to “regulations that have been implemented over the years and decades.”

“There’s just so many hours in a day,” he explained.

He said that during his tenure on the board, there was “discussion of cutting back in a certain subject area, and there were always individuals who would tell you that you’re wrong in cutting that , and sometimes they were spot on.”

However, if the state technical high schools have a longer school day, as do the charter schools, could you provide more opportunities for Business education by expanding the schedule?

“First, we would have to consider what kind of impact it would have on students,” said Harding. “They get up so early and a lot of times these students have a lot of activities afterwards.”

However, is there another option?

In 2010 former Democratic President Barack Obama and his Education Secretary Arne Duncan endorsed an expanded 197-day academic year since American students spend less time in class than students in most other developed countries.

Couldn’t that allow for more Business instruction in the high schools and also address the need for more overall instruction?

“That’s quite a leap,” Harding said of the proposed 15 additional academic days. He noted that when there are snowy winters, the schools don’t complete their academic year until late June.

Said Harding, “I would be apprehensive about adding another 15 days to the school year.”