A study was conducted to secure information relating to the following questions: (1) Are high school graduates leaving school with sufficient basic business skills to adequately manage their personal business affairs? and (2) what role is the business education department playing to provide all students with these basic business skills? A list of fifty skills and competencies was developed in four general areas: legal skills, recordkeeping skills, buying skills, and management skills, and a questionnaire was developed to test the skills identified. Questionnaires were mailed to 50% of the senior students in eight selected New York State high schools and in four selected schools in four different states. Findings were that between 65% and 93% of students surveyed were found to be deficient in basic business survival skills. Implications were that there may be a major challenge to business educators to prepare students to manage their personal business affairs. It was concluded that expanded research is in order to confirm or to refute the findings. The survey instrument, statistics, and analysis are appended. (BL)