I didn't learn squat about money from schools. I learned most from my parents. I went to a public school. I was lucky because my parents gave me a savings account when i was in elementary, and custodian stock trading account when I was in 8th grade, and funding it with the bare minimum to keep the account open, I think total about $10k- mainly to teach me about things about finances. They explained to me about how credit works, and why I couldn't have a CC yet until i was in college. Everything else, allowances when little, part time work when I was in high school went directly into the account, and whatever I spent came from that account.
Talking to other parents recently, I find out that kids that go to private schools are being taught about money (exercises like if you borrow $1000 from a credit card with 20% apr, how much is the balance making $20 monthly payments in 10 years).
When I went to public schools, my understanding at the time for why why public schools don't teach about money is along the same lines of why they don't teach a specific religion in public schools. Money/finance is a touchy subject just like religion. At the public school level, concerns about "offending" a family/parents that's family "values" don't jive with what they are teaching. And public schools needs to appeal to the most common denominator when it comes to what is "acceptable content" to almost everyone.
For example, a public school teacher that teaches about interest compounding from making $20/month minimum CC payments on a $10,000 balance might make perfect as a math problem, but a parent that is in such a financial mess may very well get offended by this, as it questions they parent's judgement, family "values",etc. As such, my experience was public school teachers often avoid such topics that can be perceived as "controversial", and quite often you end up with the traditional theretical, but otherwise useless math problems, and the connection to real finances/life is pretty much left up to the kid to figure out.
Private/charter schools are probably different , because I think most people who put their kids in private/charter school I would say have the same sort of concerns about education for their kids, and I would guess the schools have slightly more leeway in what they can teach. For example, parents that spend $30k/year on a private school probably won't be complaining about teachers that teach about the interest rate compounding problem above (though religion is probably still going to be an issue).
Public schools could have changed since the time I attended them and have gotten better, though my understanding when it comes to math, teachers are more concerned about getting students to pass the API tests than about teaching gifted kids that are above average..
