Budget 101

• Preparation and Introduction

  Learning Progression

  In this lesson, learners will:

  1. Begin exploring the city budget and discover the major aspects and components of a city budget
  2. Begin examining how the city budget impacts their neighborhood
  3. Craft a personal budget
  4. Design a budget visual
  5. Reflect on their learning

  Scaffolding and Resources

  The following are some resources that can help you complete this lesson.

  • If you are located in the Austin area, use the Capital Improvement Plan website to help your learners explore the city budget.

  Preparation Instructions and Facilitation Tips

  You can print out the worksheets or have your learners complete them online depending on your technology situation.

  Divide your learners into cooperative learning groups to complete the activities.

  Vocabulary

  • Budget
  • Revenue
  • Expenditure
  • Property Taxes
  • Public Utilities
  • Service Fees
  • Sales Tax

• Activities

  65 minutes

  Warm-Up Activity 1 - 15 minutes

  • Introduce learners to the concept and purpose of a budget with a brief discussion and lecture.
  • Learners will use the Personal Budget Warm-Up Worksheet to analyze their personal budget
  • Learners will be asked to examine their monthly revenue and expenditures. After doing so, they will briefly analyze where they spend the most money, what they might spend money on if they had additional income, and where they could cut expenses if they needed to. They will also look to the future and how their budget will change in different life scenarios (after high school, when they retire).
  • Have your learners discuss and share their analysis
  • Tip: At the end of the discussion, it might be helpful to inspire connections and bridge by asking what other entities have budgets (various levels of government, families, schools, etc) and where these entities generate revenue and what they spend money on.

  Activity 2 - 20 minutes

  • Learners will transition from analysis of personal spending to looking at Austin’s budget by completing a chart of the various sources of Austin’s revenue.
  • Learners will work in their cooperative learning groups to gain understanding of the four sources from which the City of Austin receives money: Property Taxes, Service Fees, Public Utilities, and Sales Tax.
  • Learners will complete the City of Austin Budget Worksheet for this activity
  • For each source, learners will come up with a shared definition and draw a symbol to show their understanding.
  • Ask students to brainstorm what a city would need to spend money on and what improvements their neighborhood needs that a local government could help facilitate (sidewalks/bike lanes, library, etc). Have students share out their brainstorming ideas and create a crowd-sourced list using a poster or a whiteboard.

  Activity 3 - 30 minutes

  • Students will look at the Capital Improvements Program and attain a base level of knowledge about some of the departments that request money from the city budget.
  • Students will use the Group Challenge Worksheet: Analyze the City of Austin Budget and the Collaborative Poster Worksheet for this activity
  • After students have selected a department to examine from the CIP, they will pull up their department information using the electronic PDF of the CIP found on Google Classroom (or through pre-made copies of department pages, if no electronics are accessible). Students will be given about 10 minutes to read about their department and become “experts” on it.
  • Tip: Have groups choose on a Program on a first come first serve basis, through a randomizer, or through another classroom system you already have set up.
  • Students will create a visual –either a poster or a google drawing—of a Capital Improvements Program their group chooses.
  • Students will brainstorm with their group how to best summarize the department’s goals, needs, benefits, and previous expenditures onto a visual. They will need to include brief summaries of each question in their own words, as well as a slogan, bulleted request list, image, two symbols, two key words, and a graph. The poster is collaborative- meaning the tasks should be divided equally among team members and each student must contribute to the finished product.

• Reflection and Assessment

  25 minutes

  Share and Dicuss

  • Have groups share out the visuals they created and highlight what they learned.
  • Learners will record key points of their peers' presentations and will ask questions.

  Reflection

  • Learners will answer a final exit question before concluting the lesson: what city department is most importnat to their neighborhood, and why?
  • This question will help learners critically reflect on their learning as well as to think forward to the next lesson.
  Next activity→Austin's City Limits