Alabama Social Studies SS24.E.7c
The Standard
- SS24.E.7
- Analyze the role of government in a market economy.
Explain how the budgetary categories of government revenue and expenditures impact the collection of taxes and the distribution of resources.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify where government money comes from, including taxes and fees, and where it goes, such as schools and roads. They explain how tax choices affect who pays and how spending choices affect who receives services.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given a simple budget, students identify its largest revenue sources and spending areas. They can explain how raising a sales tax or shifting money from roads to schools would affect households and services.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may treat fees as taxes or assume spending goes only to the people who paid the tax. They may also think a new program needs no spending cut, new revenue, or borrowing.
How to Assess It
- Give students a city budget with $60 million from property taxes, $40 million from sales taxes, and $100 million in spending. Ask: If roads need $10 million more, how could the city pay for it, and who would be affected?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs $60 million property tax and $40 million sales tax cards, then have them allocate $100 million among schools, roads, and police.
Ask students to write: If the city raises sales tax to repair roads, who pays more and who benefits?
Run budget swap: Teams draw a $10 million road repair card and choose a tax increase or spending cut to pay for it.
Print one page from your local government's budget; have students circle two revenue sources and underline two services it pays for.
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