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Federal Budget Policy Simulations in the Classroom
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Federal Budget Policy Simulations in the Classroom: An Examination of The Concord
Coalition’s “Principles and Priorities” Exercise
By Joshua Gordon, PhD
Education and Academic Outreach Director
The Concord Coalition
As a non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to generationally responsible fiscal
policy, The Concord Coalition focuses a great deal on educating the public about the fiscal decisions being made by policymakers along with the processes and difficulties inherent in making those decisions. The Coalition’s interactive budget simulation, called “Principles and Priorities,” is one of the foremost tools in this endeavor. Used in hundreds of political science classes at the college and graduate school level, the exercise places students in groups in order to review current taxing and spending policies, suggest principles--like debt reduction--for the future, and then apply their principles by recommending a package of policies to put America on a sound fiscal foundation for the next ten years. In reaching their recommendations, the groups--by democratically selecting from several dozen policy choices currently being debated in Washington--gain firsthand experience of the difficulty inherent in addressing the issues facing policymakers in today’s fiscal environment. They negotiate and create their own policy-making process, so they learn that element of decision-making. They also learn the details of numerous policy choices available to the elected representatives in the federal government. Professors have found that this helps make teaching the budget process a more relevant and vibrant subject. Academic research done on this exercise has found that it does help with the retention of knowledge. This paper is designed to give an introduction to how the simulation works and uses slides to show what portions of the workbooks the students use look like.
Principles and Priorities: The Exercise
Principles & Priorities has been used by a wide range of audiences (high school students,
undergraduates, graduate students, senior citizens, etc.) and can be easily modified to fit into a variety of time formats. The exercise works best in sessions ranging from one hour (abbreviated) to 3 hours (exhaustive). For more exhaustive Principles & Priorities sessions, students could be asked to research federal budget policy or economic developments preceding the exercise, or they can be asked to role-play various members of Congress. However, the exercise usually works best when students bring their own viewpoints, backgrounds and political ideologies to the table.
The exercise is often directed by a facilitator from The Concord Coalition field staff,
although many professors run it themselves, and Concord provides detailed instructions on how to best do so. There are three main materials for the exercise. The most important is the “Principles and Priorities Workbook” which each participant will need as they go through the simulation. Then, there is “The Options Book” which is a detailed resource, usually allotted one to a group, which contains in-depth discussions of the different budget options that form the “meat” of the exercise. All materials can be accessed using a login and password on the Concord Coalition’s web site (www.concordcoalition.org).
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Federal Budget Policy Simulations in the Classroom: An Examination of The Concord
Coalition’s “Principles and Priorities” Exercise
By Joshua Gordon, PhD
Education and Academic Outreach Director
The Concord Coalition
As a non-profit, grassroots organization dedicated to generationally responsible fiscal
policy, The Concord Coalition focuses a great deal on educating the public about the fiscal
decisions being made by policymakers along with the processes and difficulties inherent in
making those decisions. The Coalition’s interactive budget simulation, called “Principles and
Priorities,” is one of the foremost tools in this endeavor. Used in hundreds of political science
classes at the college and graduate school level, the exercise places students in groups in order to
review current taxing and spending policies, suggest principles--like debt reduction--for the
future, and then apply their principles by recommending a package of policies to put America on
a sound fiscal foundation for the next ten years. In reaching their recommendations, the groups--
by democratically selecting from several dozen policy choices currently being debated in
Washington--gain firsthand experience of the difficulty inherent in addressing the issues facing
policymakers in today’s fiscal environment. They negotiate and create their own policy-making
process, so they learn that element of decision-making. They also learn the details of numerous
policy choices available to the elected representatives in the federal government. Professors
have found that this helps make teaching the budget process a more relevant and vibrant subject.
Academic research done on this exercise has found that it does help with the retention of
knowledge. This paper is designed to give an introduction to how the simulation works and uses
slides to show what portions of the workbooks the students use look like.
Principles and Priorities: The Exercise
Principles & Priorities has been used by a wide range of audiences (high school students,
undergraduates, graduate students, senior citizens, etc.) and can be easily modified to fit into a
variety of time formats. The exercise works best in sessions ranging from one hour (abbreviated)
to 3 hours (exhaustive). For more exhaustive Principles & Priorities sessions, students could be
asked to research federal budget policy or economic developments preceding the exercise, or
they can be asked to role-play various members of Congress. However, the exercise usually
works best when students bring their own viewpoints, backgrounds and political ideologies to the
table.
The exercise is often directed by a facilitator from The Concord Coalition field staff,
although many professors run it themselves, and Concord provides detailed instructions on how
to best do so. There are three main materials for the exercise. The most important is the
“Principles and Priorities Workbook” which each participant will need as they go through the
simulation. Then, there is “The Options Book” which is a detailed resource, usually allotted one
to a group, which contains in-depth discussions of the different budget options that form the
“meat” of the exercise. All materials can be accessed using a login and password on the Concord
Coalition’s web site (www.concordcoalition.org).
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