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More states are requiring students to learn about managing money, but personal finance remains a fringe topic in schools and a major source of federal concern.

Seven states mandate that students take a course about basic finances to graduate high school, according to 2004 survey results released Thursday by the private National Council on Economic Education. That’s up from 2002, when just four states required such courses.

In the standards they set for schools, most states say they want money matters to be taught — 38 states include the ideas of saving, investing, risk management and other finance themes in their standards or guidelines, an increase from 31 states two years earlier. But the survey found many states don’t enforce the standards, let alone require entire courses.

We don’t want to let women have abortions AND we don’t want to teach kids about birth control. So, too, with the bankruptcy bill: We want to prevent people who face unbearable debt from ever getting a second chance AND we don’t want to even bother teaching kids how to avoid such circumstances in the first place. Typical.