Washington – April is National Financial Literacy Month, and the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) is launching a student-focused public awareness campaign designed to demonstrate the importance of financial responsibility and inspire students to make their voices heard in the ongoing fiscal policy debate.

Budgetball is an innovative new sport that combines fiscal strategy and physical play. The game takes students out of the classroom and on to the field for competitive play that highlights the relationships among debt, savings, interest, and taxes.  Budgetball gives players a compressed, real-time, physical experience in managing money that applies to balance sheets of any size – from personal finance to the Federal budget. Visit www.budgetball.org to view a video explanation of the game.

“Budgetball strips away the complicated jargon and confusing details of the Federal budget by turning 'fiscal' into 'physical,” said National Academy President Jennifer L. Dorn. “It is a catalyst for conversations about responsible financial planning – both personal and national.”

As a result of an aging population and rapidly increasing healthcare costs, America faces massive and mounting debt driven largely by unfunded promises for Medicare and Social Security. Simply stated, there is no greater threat to our nation’s long-term economic well being than the growing gap between spending and revenue.

The first campus-wide Budgetball Tournament was played at the University of Miami on Saturday. 18 April, 2009.

“The University of Miami was delighted to host the Budgetball Tournament,” said Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami. “Nobody has more at stake in our nation’s long-term economic stability than the generation that will inherit it. This game will teach our students some of the tools needed to become fiscally responsible.”

The game is played between two teams of 6 to 10 people on an area roughly the size of a basketball court. In order to win, players must use compromise and persuasion to achieve consensus about debt and savings.  During a game, teams score points by passing the ball to a player in the end zone, while strategically managing their Budgetbucks.  Budgetbucks may be borrowed, earned or spent by taking advantages such as an extra offensive player or by taking team sacrifices like wearing oven mitts during play.  To win, a team must creatively and responsibly use debt and savings to gain sufficient advantage over their opponents and score more points.  

Budgetball was created by the National Academy in partnership with Parsons The New School for Design and Area/Code, and funded by a grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

More information about Budgetball, including a Budgetball game kit, is available on the National Academy’s Budgetball website, www.budgetball.org.