Civics & Public Process · Capstone brief
CIV-03 · Audit a public budget line
Pick one line item in a real, publicly published government budget and explain what it actually funds, how it changed from the prior cycle, and what a resident would need to know to evaluate it.
The question
Pick one line item in a real, publicly published government budget and explain what it actually funds, how it changed from the prior cycle, and what a resident would need to know to evaluate it.
Primary sources / materials
One real, publicly published budget document from a government body (a school district, city, county, or state agency's own published budget, not a news summary of it) — — a link to the specific public budget document used. The current and prior year's figures for the chosen line item. Any public meeting minutes or agenda items where that line was discussed, if available from the body's own public records.
Expected failure modes
Picking a line item so small or so undocumented that there is nothing to actually analyze. Confusing a percentage change with a dollar change (or vice versa) without checking both. Treating "the budget went up" as self-evidently good or bad without naming what the money is for.
Done looks like
Line-item identification with a link to the actual budget document and page/table reference; year-over-year comparison (dollars and percentage, both correct); plain-language explanation of what the line funds; a resident-facing question list — what a taxpayer would reasonably want answered before forming an opinion.
Five C's
CT: a number is not an argument by itself. CR: figures traceable to the real budget document. CO: peer re-derives the percentage change from the same source. CM: resident-facing question list. CZ: residents and service users affected by this line item.
Mentor role
Government/civics or economics teacher checks the arithmetic and confirms the budget document is genuinely public and current. School-supervised.
Rubric calibration
R1: one line item, one question. R2: figures traceable to the real document. R3: student understands how this line item fits the larger budget process (proposal, hearing, adoption). R4: both possible interpretations of the change named (e.g., growth vs. cost overrun). R5: question list usable by a non-specialist resident.
Two ways this goes wrong
(a) A vague claim about "wasteful spending" with no line item actually identified. (b) Arithmetic that doesn't match the source numbers.
Credit lane fit
Lane A immediately. No verified credit claim.