Final answer:
The marginal expense of getting a good science teacher instead of a poor one is $4,000.
Step-by-step explanation:
The marginal expense of getting a good science teacher instead of a poor one can be calculated by finding the difference in wages between the two types of teachers. The school pays all teachers the same annual wage of $70,000, except for science teachers who would need to be paid $90,000 to hire good ones. Therefore, the marginal expense for hiring a good science teacher instead of a poor one is $90,000 - $70,000 = $20,000.
To calculate the marginal expense, we need to know the number of science teachers in relation to the total number of teachers. Since one out of five teachers is a science teacher, we can calculate the marginal expense by multiplying the difference in wages by the proportion of science teachers. So, the marginal expense is $20,000 * 1/5 = $4,000.