Debate kit Grade 9 Social Studies & Civics

Should Ardenvale Lease Its Water System to a Private Operator?

A grade 9 debate kit on a fictional city's twenty-year concession offer, with evidence on both sides and a council panel that must vote at the end.

Grade: Grade 9
Subject: Social Studies & Civics
Material: Debate kit
Time: 2 sessions, ~90 min total
Prep: Low prep
Materials: Printed evidence file, one per student, Role cards for two teams, five council members, and a timekeeper

Standards

D2.Eco.1.9-12 C3 Framework

Analyze how incentives influence choices that may result in policies with a range of costs and benefits for different groups.

How this material aligns: Both evidence sets turn on how a twenty-year rate formula changes the incentives facing a council, an operator, and the households paying the bills.

All materials for D2.Eco.1.9-12 →

D2.Civ.9.9-12 C3 Framework

Use appropriate deliberative processes in multiple settings.

How this material aligns: The kit assigns speaking order, cross-examination, council questioning, and a recorded vote, which together form a structured deliberative process.

All materials for D2.Civ.9.9-12 →

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This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely, without attribution. Updated 2026-09-04.

Objectives

Students will build an argument from a shared evidence file rather than from opinion.
Students will distinguish a documented national figure from a detail invented for the scenario.
Students will question a speaker and revise a position in response to the answer.

Vocabulary

Ratepayer: A person or business that pays a utility bill. Ratepayers provide most of the money that keeps a water system running.

Also: concession, capital investment, rate formula, public comment

Teacher overview

This kit runs as a two-team policy debate before a five-member council panel that must vote and give reasons. The resolution is genuinely contested, because cities in the United States have moved in both directions on it, and both moves have produced results people defend. One side can point to pipes that need replacing now and a workforce that is retiring, while the other can point to twenty years of rate decisions moved out of public view. The evidence file gives each side documented national figures and clearly labeled details invented for the fictional city.

Should Ardenvale Lease Its Water System to a Private Operator? — Grade 9 Social Studies & Civics

Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Resolution & Background

Resolution: Resolved, that the city of Ardenvale should lease the operation of its water system to a private company for twenty years.

Ardenvale is a fictional city of 46,000 people, written for this debate. Its water system is owned by the city and run by a city department. Every figure below that names Ardenvale is invented for the scenario. Every figure that names a national source is real, and the source is given.

Here is the offer on the table. A private operator would run the fictional system for twenty years. The city would keep ownership of the pipes, the plant, and the reservoir. The operator would pay the city $52,000,000 up front. Rates would rise each year by a formula written into the contract. The city council would still hold public hearings, but it could not change the formula during the term.

The fictional Ardenvale system has other problems. Its oldest cast-iron mains were laid in the 1920s. It has lost three of its eight licensed operators to retirement in four years. The council has voted down a rate increase in six of the last ten budget years.

Roles are assigned as follows. Two teams of four argue the resolution. Five students sit as the council panel and must vote at the end, each giving one sentence of reasoning. One student keeps time and reads the speaking order aloud.

The order of speaking is fixed. Each team gives a four-minute opening. Each team then asks the other three minutes of questions. Each team gives a three-minute rebuttal. The council panel asks six minutes of questions to either side. Each team closes for two minutes. The panel then votes on the record.

Evidence File

Points marked as national figures come from the named public source. Points marked as scenario details are invented for the fictional city of Ardenvale and should be argued as such.

Case for the lease

National figure, ASCE 2025 Report Card for America's Infrastructure: US drinking water was graded C- and wastewater D+. The gap between what systems need and what they spend is not unique to one city.
National figure, ASCE Report Card talking points: a water main breaks in the US roughly every two minutes. Waiting to replace pipe is itself a choice with costs.
National figure, EPA America's Water Sector Workforce Initiative and AWWA: roughly one-third of the water workforce becomes retirement-eligible within the next decade. A firm that runs many systems can move licensed operators where they are needed.
Scenario detail: the $52,000,000 payment would let the fictional city replace its 1920s mains in the first six years instead of the fourth decade.
Scenario detail: the fictional council rejected a rate increase in six of the last ten budget years. A contract formula would set rates by rule rather than by election-year nerve.
Scenario detail: the fictional contract keeps city ownership of every asset and returns operations to the city at the end of twenty years.

Case against the lease

National figure, Bluefield Research and industry rate surveys: combined US water and sewer bills rose about 24 percent from 2019 to 2024 and about 5.1 percent in 2025, faster than inflation. Bills were already climbing under public operation.
National figure, EPA Water Affordability Needs Assessment (December 2024): a widely used rule of thumb, built by adding two EPA benchmarks (2.5 percent for drinking water and 2 percent for wastewater), treats combined water and sewer costs above roughly 4.5 percent of household income as a high burden. EPA has no single official cutoff, and its 2024 assessment used both 3 percent and 4.5 percent. A formula that tracks costs can still outrun what households can pay.
National figure, EPA Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment: about $625 billion is needed nationally over 20 years, with distribution pipes about two-thirds of that. No operator can fix that gap, so the contract will cover only part of the problem.
Scenario detail: the fictional city's finance office reports that the up-front payment is repaid through twenty years of rates. Residents receive the money now and pay it back later with the operator's return added.
Scenario detail: under the fictional contract the council may hold hearings but may not change the rate formula. Public comment would continue without the power that used to follow it.
Scenario detail: the fictional operator's proposal measures performance by main breaks per year. It sets no target for taste, odor, or discolored water complaints, which is what residents actually call about.

Each team must use at least two national figures and at least two scenario details. Teams may not introduce outside numbers.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Rubric

Criterion	1, Emerging	2, Developing	3, Proficient	4, Advanced
Use of evidence	Asserts positions with no evidence from the file.	Cites one or two points, sometimes without naming the source.	Cites at least four points, names each source, and uses both national figures and scenario details.	Cites the required points, and explains why a national figure applies or fails to apply to the fictional city.
Distinguishing fact from scenario	Treats invented Ardenvale details as documented facts.	Mixes the two, and corrects it only when challenged.	Labels every point correctly as a national figure or a scenario detail.	Labels every point correctly, and turns an opponent's mislabeling into an argument.
Rebuttal quality	Repeats the opening rather than answering.	Responds to the weakest opposing point only.	Answers the opposing side's strongest point directly.	Answers the strongest point, concedes what is true in it, and shows why the conclusion still fails.
Deliberation and delivery	Speaks over others or exceeds time repeatedly.	Keeps time with reminders, reads from the page.	Keeps time, speaks to the panel, and answers questions asked.	Keeps time, adjusts the argument in response to a panel question, and cites the file from memory.

Council panel members are scored on the last two criteria only, using the reasoning sentence each gives with the vote.

Differentiation

Support

Give students a pre-cut evidence card for each point in the file, with the source printed on the card and a blank line for the student's own one-sentence explanation of why it matters. Assign these students the opening speech, which can be prepared in full ahead of time, rather than rebuttal.

Extension

Ask students to write the four sentences of the rate formula they would insist on before voting for the fictional lease, then identify which of the four the operator would resist most and why. Students may also serve as the council panel and prepare three questions that neither team can answer from the file alone.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "concession," "ratepayer," "formula," and "public comment" with a simple before-and-after diagram of who decides rates under city operation and under the fictional contract. Provide sentence frames for each speech: "Our strongest evidence is ___, from ___," "The other team says ___, but ___," and "I vote ___ because ___."

Extensions

Students find out who operates their own water system, using only the utility's published website or the annual water quality report, and write a paragraph naming the operator, the owner, and who sets rates. A second option is to write the two-page staff report the fictional Ardenvale city manager would send to the council after the debate, summarizing both cases and recommending a decision with conditions.