Writing prompt Grade 11 Social Studies & Civics
Selling Norvale's Water Utility: A Grade 11 Argument Prompt
A grade 11 argument prompt asking whether the fictional city of Norvale should sell its water utility to a private operator, with organizer, exemplar essay, and rubric.
Objectives
- Students will write an argument essay that states a claim, develops two evidenced reasons, and rebuts a counterclaim.
- Students will distinguish the tradeoffs between public and private ownership of a water system.
- Students will use national rate-trend and affordability evidence to support a local policy position.
Vocabulary
Key words: privatization, concession, capital investment, rate base, counterclaim
Teacher overview
Cities that own their water systems occasionally face an offer to sell, and the decision raises several civics questions at once: who should control an essential service, who bears the risk of aging equipment, and who answers to ratepayers when bills rise. This prompt puts students inside a fictional city council's decision and asks for a fully developed argument essay. The background supplies everything a student needs, so no outside research is required.
Prompt
Background: The city of Norvale is a fictional community of 40,000 created for this prompt. Norvale owns and runs its own water utility. A study done for the council found the system needs $45 million in upgrades over the next ten years. Most of that money would go to aging mains and a treatment plant built two generations ago. A private operator, Aquilon Water Partners, also fictional, has offered to buy the system for $30 million. Aquilon promises to pay for the upgrades with its own funds and points to its licensed staff and its engineers. It would earn that money back through the rates Norvale customers pay, and a state board would review those rates. If Norvale keeps the system, the council would pay for upgrades through higher rates, borrowing, or both. Rate decisions would stay with the elected council. Two national facts bear on the choice. Combined water and sewer bills in the United States rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024, and about 5.1 percent in 2025. Both increases outpaced inflation, so bills will likely rise under either owner. A widely used rule of thumb, built by adding two EPA benchmarks, treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high burden, although EPA has no single official cutoff. Some Norvale households are already near that line in this scenario.
Writing task: Write an argument essay that states a clear claim on whether Norvale should accept Aquilon's offer. Develop at least two reasons supported by evidence from the background. Acknowledge the strongest counterclaim a reasonable opponent would raise, and rebut it. Address your essay to the Norvale city council.
Planning Organizer
| Category | Your notes |
|---|---|
| Claim: should Norvale sell the utility? | |
| Reason 1 with evidence from the background | |
| Reason 2 with evidence from the background | |
| Strongest counterclaim an opponent would raise | |
| Your rebuttal to that counterclaim | |
| Concluding recommendation to the council |
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:
Norvale should decline Aquilon's offer and keep its water utility, because the sale trades permanent control of an essential service for a one-time payment that does not change what residents will ultimately pay. The background makes clear that the $45 million in upgrades must be funded either way, and under Aquilon's model the company recovers its investment through the rates Norvale customers pay. The money for new mains and a modern plant will come from Norvale water bills whether the check is written by a council the ratepayers elect or a company they cannot vote out. Selling would leave the cost in place and change only who decides how it is collected.
Control matters most precisely when bills are rising. Nationally, combined water and sewer bills rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024 and another 5.1 percent in 2025, faster than inflation, so Norvale should expect rate pressure under any owner. With some Norvale households already approaching the widely used high-burden line of roughly 4.5 percent of household income, the council will need tools like discount programs, gradual phase-ins, and hardship protections. An elected council can adopt those tools directly and answer for them at the next election. Under private ownership, such decisions move to a company balancing Norvale against its investors, with the state board as the residents' only lever.
The strongest argument for selling is real and deserves a fair answer: Aquilon brings capital and licensed expertise that a city of 40,000 struggles to match, and the $30 million payment would arrive immediately. But Norvale can buy expertise without selling the system, through contracts for engineering and operations support, and it can raise capital through public borrowing while keeping ownership of assets its ratepayers have already paid for once. A contract can be rebid if the work disappoints. A sale would move Norvale's rates from the elected council to a state board's review, and no future council could easily undo it.
Keeping the utility asks more of the council, which must now plan honestly for $45 million in work and defend the rate increases that funding it will require. That harder path is still the better one, because it keeps every future decision about Norvale's water in the hands of people Norvale residents can elect, question, and replace.
Rubric:
| Criterion | Emerging | Developing | Proficient | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claim | No clear position on the sale | Position stated but shifts or hedges | One clear, consistent position addressed to the council | Clear position that also previews the reasoning the essay will follow |
| Evidence & reasoning | No background evidence used | Mentions background facts without connecting them to the claim | Uses at least two specific background details and explains how each supports the claim | Uses multiple details, including at least one national figure, and explains how each advances the argument |
| Counterclaim & rebuttal | No opposing view acknowledged | Names an opposing view without answering it | States the strongest opposing view fairly and rebuts it with evidence | Rebuts the strongest opposing view and explains why the essay's position still holds on balance |
| Organization & conventions | Ideas disconnected; errors block meaning | Some structure; errors distract but do not block meaning | Clear paragraph structure with few errors | Purposeful structure, strong closing recommendation, and nearly error-free prose |
Differentiation
Support
Reduce the task to one reason plus the counterclaim and rebuttal, and provide sentence starters for each organizer row, such as "The council should ___ because the background states ___." Allow the essay to be drafted from a completed organizer reviewed by the teacher before writing begins.
Extension
Ask students to add a paragraph proposing one enforceable condition Norvale could demand in a sale agreement, such as a rate phase-in period or a buy-back clause, and to argue whether the condition would change their overall claim.
ELL supports
Pre-teach privatization, capital, and counterclaim with a two-column visual comparing council ownership and company ownership. Permit the organizer to be completed in phrases, and provide a paragraph frame for the rebuttal: "Supporters of the sale argue ___. This matters because ___. However, ___."
Extensions
Students can exchange essays and write a one-paragraph response in the voice of a council member on the other side, testing whether the original essay's rebuttal actually answered the strongest opposing argument.