Welcome to Next Ten's eNews, a quarterly newsletter to update you on Next Ten's activities and products that help educate and engage Californians about issues that affect our future economy and quality of life.

Challenge Update
Next Ten was launched with the release of our first product – the California Budget Challenge – on April 5th 2005. The California Budget Challenge is an online educational tool that lets users build their own state budget by choosing how much to spend on K-12 education, higher education, health care, prisons and other spending and also how to pay for these services. We developed the Challenge in response to requests by civic leaders for a way to understand the budget so they could be better able to hold their elected officials accountable.

To date, 10,000 Californians have taken the Challenge and many of them tell us they have emerged from the experience more informed and more empowered. Read More...

Budget IQ Quiz – Fast Facts Now Available
It came to our attention that many busy Californians wanted a shorter, faster way to learn key facts about the state budget. To meet this need, Next Ten released an interactive Budget IQ Quiz that communicates key budget facts in less than 30 seconds for each question. Over the past summer, we emailed new Quiz questions to our subscribers every couple of weeks. Read more...

Making the Budget Easier to Understand – California Budget Choices Now Available
Next Ten worked with Common Knowledge to create a short, highly visual budget basics brochure called California Budget Choices that is now available in English and Spanish, with more languages coming soon. The nonpartisan brochure answers basic questions about the budget, such as: where do revenues come from, where does spending go, and how did the continuing budget deficits happen. This brochure is ideal for newcomers to the topic and anyone who would like a quick overview of the budget that is easy to understand. Read more...
 

Spreading the Word
Next Ten is eager to get Californians informed about our budget educational materials. We have already exhibited or spoken at conferences this year including the League of Women Voters, Commonwealth Club Voices of Reform meeting, California Parent Teacher Association, Great Valley Center, ACORN, Sierra Club, California Center for Regional Leadership, and the League of California Cities.

Next Ten had great success getting press coverage of the Challenge launch in April. The vast majority of our users heard about us through the media, especially the news articles that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sacramento Bee, and the Web sites of KPCC and Rough and Tumble. Read more...

Thank You for Your Interest in Next Ten
Please contact us at info@next-ten.org for additional information or visit us online at www.next-ten.org.