H&R Block is promoting financial literacy education through its free-to-participate-in Budget Challenge. The challenge has $3 million in grants and scholarships up for grabs and teachers have three more opportunities to register their class in a simulation.

Totally free and open to students 14-years-old or older, a classroom is eligible to participate so long as it belongs to an accredited public or private school; home study programs are also eligible.

According to the H&R Block website, a simulation is “in the form of an online game that simulates real life as an adult: paying bills, managing expenses, saving money, investing in retirement, paying taxes and more. Participants play classroom against classroom and students against students in this learning-by-doing simulation to win $3 million in grants and scholarships.”

Classrooms are eligible for classroom grants based on the average student score of the class; classrooms can only win one grant over the course of the program. There are a total of 60 opportunities for classrooms to win grants of up to $5,000 each.

As for scholarships, "22 students with the highest individual scores each win a $20,000 student scholarship. Individual rankings are updated nightly and visible to the student through their unique login on the student’s Budget Challenge homepage,” the site says. With six total simulations, 132 students will ultimately have an opportunity to win a $20,000 scholarship.

The student with the highest Real-World Ready score at the end of the program will win the grand prize of a $100,000 scholarship for any four-year accredited university.

The program began in September, but teachers can still sign up for three remaining simulations. The remaining simulations and their respective registration deadlines are in the table below.

Learn more about the challenge and how to register here.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor 

12/14/2015