Subscribe

9th grade · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 11

Government & the Economy

Taxes, budgets and policy

What your child practices

How governments raise and spend money, Texas's taxes and Rainy Day Fund, deficits and debt, fiscal and monetary policy, regulation, the free enterprise system, and trade policy.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: GOV.4(A); GOV.4(B); GOV.4(C); GOV.5(B) · government fiscal and regulatory policy at each level, free enterprise, taxation, and trade policy

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. A budget plans how money is raised and spent. The federal government’s main source is individual income taxes.
  2. The Federal Reserve runs monetary policy, like interest rates. Texas’s Rainy Day Fund is filled mostly by oil and gas taxes.
  3. A sales tax is regressive: it takes a larger share of a lower income.

Example: Why is a sales tax called regressive? Everyone pays the same rate on what they buy. That is a bigger share of a small income than a large one. Answer: It takes a larger share of a lower income

Government & the Economy in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 10 of 11 in 9th grade Social Studies, after How Laws Are Made and before Federalism & Texas Government.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    What is a budget deficit?

    • When it prints money
    • When it saves money
    • When a government spends more than it collects in a year
    • When taxes are zero

  2. Question 2

    A progressive tax is one where…

    • Everyone pays the same amount
    • No one pays
    • Lower incomes pay a higher percentage
    • People with higher incomes pay a higher percentage

  3. Question 3

    What is a tax?

    • A loan from a bank
    • A gift to a friend
    • A business profit
    • Money people and businesses must pay to government

  4. Question 4

    Trade agreements the president negotiates, such as the USMCA with Mexico and Canada, need approval from…

    • the governors
    • the Supreme Court alone
    • Congress
    • the United Nations

  5. Question 5

    What is inflation?

    • A government job
    • A kind of tax
    • A general rise in prices over time
    • A fall in prices

  6. Question 6

    Fiscal policy is set by…

    • The Supreme Court
    • Congress and the president, through taxes and spending
    • Each city
    • Banks only

More 9th grade