The Budget Challenge Blog

Rhiannon Miller, a teacher in South Park, Pennsylvania, has used Budget Challenge for the past four years. Read how she rewards her highest performing students.

Cindy Quaid is the Business & Technology Department Chair and the Future Business Leaders of America Adviser at Santa Maria High School in Santa Maria CA. This is her 30th year teaching at her high school alma mater. She is a long-time user of Budget Challenge.

We love sharing creative ways that teachers secure funding for Budget Challenge. Teachers who have earned the appropriate number of points with DonorsChoose can request a Special Project. Carrie Rugenstein, a math teacher at Lincoln High School in Owosso, MI recently shared how she was able to secure funding for Budget Challenge with the help of DonorsChoose and a community sponsor.

Linda Ryan-Catt, a TRIO SSS Academic Counselor and Financial Literacy Instructor took the time to share her recent experience with implementing Budget Challenge into her classroom. "I was very impressed with Budget Challenge because it included curriculum. I found it very student and teacher friendly. Its biggest plus was the webinar and access to customer service. Their rep was very thorough and answered all my questions...and I asked a lot of them. She even came into my screen to demonstrate at times. I thought the simulation was very good, and student friendly with reminders coming into their emails. One of my students complained that he found the simulation tedious and annoying because he was constantly having to go into budget challenge to pay bills, transfer $, etc. Welcome to real life!—only this simulation helped them get through the process more easily. It is a good program. I was not sold when I started working with it last summer, but I found it to be a very good course.”

We recently asked Steve Stofelano, a business teacher in New York, a few questions about his Budget Challenge experience. Here's what he had to say.

Amanda Volz is a personal finance teacher that has been a top user of Budget Challenge since 2014. She has taught several hundred students using our simulation and has had a large proportion finish in the top 5% of students nationwide. Read our interview with Mrs. Volz.

Stephen Latter in Potomac Falls, VA has been a huge advocate for our program. We were even able to sit in on his class for a day last fall to see how he uses Budget Challenge in his classroom. Read his thoughts on the program..

Trisha DeBacco is a personal finance teacher that has been a loyal user of Budget Challenge since 2015. In that time, she has taught over 300 students across 15+ classes. Read our interview with Trisha to learn tips on how to implement our program.