Student Response
The benefits of repairing the roads include: better transportation, better highways and roads, safer roads, jobs created, looks better. The opportunity cost is the loss of funding for education programs in the state.
The benefits of building new schools include: better education, a smarter generation, jobs will be created for a long period of time and money, crime rate may decrease (statistics show that most criminals do not know how to read), the more educated someone is, the less likely they are to go to jail. The opportunity cost is that the roads will not be fixed.
The best way for the state government to determine which proposal to fund would be to weigh the benefits and the opportunity cost, as shown above. The government should fund the schools because it creates more jobs, may save the state money in the long term because education tends to keep people out of prison, and the generation that goes to the school will grow up and influence the economy for the better. Not to mention the school will last longer than the roads.
Score
Score Point 4
Annotation
The response demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of opportunity cost by describing the benefits of each option (better transportation, better highways and roads, safer roads, jobs created, looks better; better education, jobs, crime rate may decrease) and the opportunity costs of each option (loss of funding for education; the roads will not be fixed). Furthermore, the response applies evidence from the stimulus (most criminals do not know how to read; the more educated someone is, the less likely they are to go to jail) to provide support for the choice and also addresses the second bullet (generation that goes to the school will grow up and influence the economy for the better; school will last longer than the roads) in a way that reveals insight.
