Writing prompt Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics
A Water Bill Assistance Fund for Tresland: An Argument Prompt
A grade 10 argument prompt on a fictional state bill adding a small surcharge to every water bill to fund assistance for low-income households.
Objectives
- Students will state and defend a claim about a statewide water-assistance surcharge using the background evidence.
- Students will address a counterclaim about fairness or cost and rebut it with reasoning.
- Students will connect affordability data to a specific policy design choice.
Vocabulary
- Ratepayer
- A person or business that pays a utility bill. Ratepayers provide most of the money that keeps a water system running.
Also: surcharge, means-tested, affordability, counterclaim
Teacher overview
Water bills have been rising faster than inflation nationally, and unlike food or electricity, water service has no long-standing federal assistance program to fall back on. Some state legislatures have debated building their own. This prompt asks students to argue for or against a bill in the fictional state of Tresland that would fund water-bill assistance through a small surcharge on every account, a design that pays for a targeted benefit with many small mandatory payments.
Prompt
Background: Across the United States, combined water and sewer bills rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024, and about 5.1 percent more in 2025, outpacing inflation. A widely used rule of thumb, built from two EPA benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of a household's income as a high burden, although EPA has no single official cutoff. In the fictional state of Tresland, lawmakers are debating Senate Bill 214. The bill would add a $1.50 monthly surcharge to every water account in the state. The money would go into an assistance fund, and households below an income line set by the bill could apply for a credit of up to $20 a month on their water bills. Supporters say the fund protects neighbors from shutoffs for the price of a small monthly charge. Opponents say a mandatory surcharge is a tax by another name, that renters who pay water through landlords may never see the benefit, and that utilities should cut costs before charging everyone more.
Writing task: Write an argument essay for or against Senate Bill 214. State a clear claim, support it with at least two pieces of evidence or reasoning drawn from the background, address one counterclaim an opponent or supporter would raise, and rebut that counterclaim. Your conclusion should tell Tresland's senators what to do.
Planning Organizer
| Category | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Claim (should SB 214 pass?) | |
| Reason 1 with evidence from the background | |
| Reason 2 with evidence from the background | |
| Counterclaim the other side would raise | |
| Your rebuttal to that counterclaim | |
| Concluding recommendation to the senators |
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Exemplar & Rubric
Exemplar response:
The Tresland Senate should pass Senate Bill 214, because rising water bills are becoming a genuine hardship and a small shared surcharge is a reasonable way to address it. Nationally, combined water and sewer bills rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024 and kept climbing faster than inflation in 2025, which means the pressure on low-income households is not a temporary problem that will resolve on its own. A widely used rule of thumb built from EPA benchmarks treats combined bills above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high burden, and households near that line face a choice between paying for water and paying for other essentials. A $1.50 monthly surcharge is smaller than almost any other line on a utility bill, while a credit of up to $20 a month is large enough to keep a struggling household connected.
Opponents argue that a mandatory surcharge is simply a tax, imposed on every account whether or not the customer agrees with the program. That concern deserves a serious answer. The rebuttal is that ratepayers already share costs they did not individually choose, from main replacements to treatment upgrades, because a water system only works as a shared enterprise. Keeping neighbors connected is part of that shared enterprise: shutoffs have public health consequences, and unpaid bills end up spread across the remaining customers anyway. Paying $1.50 transparently, into a fund with defined eligibility, is a better bargain than paying for the same problem indirectly.
The bill is not perfect, and the renter problem is real, since tenants whose water flows through a landlord's account may never see a credit. The Senate should fix that with an amendment directing credits to master-metered buildings that document tenant arrears, not use it as a reason to abandon the fund. Senators should pass SB 214 with that amendment attached and review what the fund actually delivers after its first two years.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position on SB 214 | A position is stated but wavers or restates the background | One clear, consistent position stated early | A clear position that also previews the essay's line of reasoning |
| Evidence & reasoning | No background evidence used | One piece of evidence cited without connection to the claim | Two pieces of evidence connected to the claim with reasoning | Two or more pieces of evidence, each explained, with reasoning that anticipates objections |
| Counterclaim & rebuttal | No counterclaim addressed | A counterclaim is named but not answered | A counterclaim is stated fairly and rebutted with reasoning | The counterclaim is stated fairly, rebutted specifically, and the rebuttal strengthens the original claim |
| Organization & conventions | Ideas are disconnected and errors block meaning | Some structure, with noticeable errors that do not block meaning | Clear paragraphs with few errors and a real conclusion | Purposeful structure, a directive conclusion, and nearly error-free prose |
Differentiation
Support
Provide sentence starters for each organizer row, such as "SB 214 should pass because the background states ___," and allow the counterclaim and rebuttal to appear in a single paragraph with a printed frame.
Extension
Have students draft one amendment to SB 214, such as an income line, a renter fix, or a sunset date, and add a paragraph arguing how the amendment answers the strongest objection to their position.
ELL supports
Pre-teach "surcharge," "credit," and "eligibility" with a labeled sample water bill showing where the charge and the credit would appear. Allow the organizer to be completed in phrases and the first draft to follow a printed paragraph frame.