Simulations offer opportunities for students to receive instruction in political strategies and practice developing political skills without the real-world consequences faced by policymakers. Budget simulations introduce students to collective action problems prevalent at all levels of American government and can be used in a variety of courses.…

The California Budget Challenge produced by Next10 provides a useful and intuitive tool for instructors to introduce students to public budgeting. Students will reason through a series of budgeting decisions using information provided on the fiscal and practical implications of their choices. The Challenge is updated with each budget cycle, so it…

"A Better Way to Budget" provides practical, innovative advice on how to overcome the political and social pushback that often prevents district and school leaders from shifting scarce resources to the most student-centered uses. Nathan Levenson shows how school leaders can uncover the sources of potential conflicts and create a…

Engaging students with material associated with public budgeting processes can be a challenge. Our experience in an interdisciplinary seminar on education politics and policy suggests that a budget simulation exercise is an effective tool to achieve multiple objectives, including increased student engagement and strengthening student-learning…

In recent years, there has been some dispute over the appropriate way to model decision making in professional sports leagues. In particular, Szymanski and Kesenne (2004) argue that formulating the decision-making problem in a noncooperative game leads to radically different conclusions about the nature of competition in sports leagues. The author…

This article describes an experiential exercise that uses a brief simulation model intended to introduce undergraduate international finance students to the complexities in corporate investments in foreign countries. Use of the model requires one or preferably two class periods. Student learning goals include: (a) understanding how different…

Using a Web-based program he developed, one educator is helping students understand how their career and lifestyle choices are linked. MyLife, a Web-based life-planning program for young people, offers comprehensive budget activity in which participants develop simulations of their fantasy futures and calculate their future monthly…

Describes a multiformat simulation game based on the theme of budgeting for food and its original development as a manual exercise for use with old age pensioners. The game's current versions, their uses, and target audiences are discussed along with how the exercise was made generally available in a do-it-yourself package. (Author/MBR)

A rationale is presented for viewing the decision-making process inherent in determining budget reductions for educational programs as most effectively modeled by a graduated funding approach. The major tenets of the graduated budget reduction approach to educational fiscal policy include the development of multiple alternative reduction plans, or…

This paper defines, develops, and displays a mathematical modeling formulation for exploring decisions available to the higher educational administrator in evaluating discrete educational program budgets (instructional, service, and administrative) for possible future funding alternatives. Complex budget reduction strategies can be…

The functional skills activity, "On Your Own," provides an opportunity for adolescents with mild disabilities to apply cognitive and academic skills in the program's four phases (choosing a career, finding an apartment, furnishing the apartment, and learning to budget) involve direct instruction, hands-on activities, small-group discussions, and…

A major assignment for twelfth grade social science students at a California high school deals with the basic components of survival on one's own. Students must simulate moving out of their parents' home, finding a job, making major household and transportation purchases, buying on credit, investing money, buying insurance, and getting involved in…

Long-range planning techniques used by U.S. business corporations and the potential adaptation of these processes by public colleges and universities are examined. The state-of-the-art is developed by reviewing corporate strategic planning methods from the 1950s through the 1970s. Strategic planning, as defined by Drucker, is a continuous process…

Drawing on the authors' extensive experience at Stanford University as well as the work of others, this book offers the first systematic approach to fiscal and human resource planning at colleges and universities. It shows how decision models can and should become an integral part of the planning process. The uses and misuses of planning models in…

The development of a planning/budgeting model as an integral component of a decision support system is described. The case study approach is used to describe how Grambling State University (GSU) developed the model to improve its financial planning and budgeting processes. The model can be used for tactical and/or strategic planning. The model is…