Virginia SOL CE.13.c
The Standard
describing how local, state, and federal governments allocate their budgets and collect taxes to pay for goods and services
Virginia Standards of Learning for History and Social Science · The student will apply history and social science skills to analyze the role of government in the United States economy by
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students identify common taxes collected by local, state, and federal governments and connect that revenue to public goods and services. They read simple budgets and explain how limited revenue forces spending choices.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can use a budget table to tell where revenue comes from, where it goes, and which level of government is involved. The student can propose a spending or tax change and explain the trade-off.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think one tax pays for one service directly, rather than entering a larger budget. They may assign each tax to only one level, even though some taxes are collected by multiple levels. Some ignore that higher spending requires more revenue or less spending elsewhere.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: For property tax, Virginia sales tax, and federal income tax, identify the collector and one service funded. If revenue drops 10 percent, choose one service to reduce and explain the trade-off.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give groups 100 budget tokens and service cards, then require cuts when projected tax revenue drops to 85 tokens.
Ask, “Which service should keep funding during a revenue drop, and what should government reduce or tax to pay for it?”
Run a card-sort relay matching property, sales, and income taxes with the government levels and services they commonly support.
Show one page from your city budget, and have students label one revenue source, one service, and one spending trade-off.
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Related Standards
- 3.1.h
paying local, state, and federal taxes
- CE.4.a
describing the structure and powers of the local government and explaining the local lawmaking process;
- 3.9.d
explaining what governments do at the national, state, and local levels; and
- CE.13.b
explaining how and why government provides certain public goods and services;
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