In Oklahoma, the requirement usually is up to “algebra 2” - this is mostly domain and range, finding roots of polynomials, and logarithms.
IMHO, the world would be better if calculus was a required part of the high school curriculum. Like yeah, most people aren’t going to need the product rule in day to day life, but the fundamental ideas about rates of change seem like they’re something that everyone human deserves to be exposed to.
Business math appears to just be algebra applied to money. The math you’re using to balance your books can do so much more than that.
That’s what word problems are supposed to teach you, how to apply the math. So you can critical think your way to awnsers to problems you aren’t taught specifically to solve.
I do think how we teach word problems can be improved, obviously, considering the amount of people who hate them and never get it. But teaching people how to use math for only money feels like a failure to me.
It’s not a failure to acknowledge that money is the thing that MOST people are going to use math for MOST of the time, for their entire lives. Making sure they come out of high school with basic financial literacy should be a priority. They usually learn to drive in high school don’t they? Do they? I did, but that was the olden days.
And there’s lots more than money involved with business math. There are lots of calculations that need to be made in a business, although that at some level, everything ultimately serves the bottom line.
Teaching people how to handle money wouldn’t be the worst thing, unless you’re a dishonest politician or businessman who wants to get their hands on everybody’s money.