Argument 30 范文

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Arg 30reduce city budgets for education

The following appeared as a recommendation by a committee planning a ten-year budget for the city of Calatrava.

The birthrate in our city is declining: in fact, last year's birthrate was only one-half that of five years ago. Thus the number of students enrolled in our public schools will soon decrease dramatically, and we can safely reduce the funds budgeted for education during the next decade. At the same time, we can reduce funding for athletic playing fields and other recreational facilities. As a result, we will have sufficient money to fund city facilities and programs used primarily by adults, since we can expect the adult population of the city to increase.

Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.


C1: The birthrate in our city is declining:

G1in fact, last year's birthrate was only one-half that of five years ago.

C2: Thus the number of students enrolled in our public schools will soon decrease dramatically,

C3: and we can safely reduce the funds budgeted for education during the next decade.

C4: At the same time, we can reduce funding for athletic playing fields and other recreational facilities.

C5: As a result, we will have sufficient money to fund city facilities and programs used primarily by adults,

C6: since we can expect the adult population of the city to increase.


A1(G1,C1): Data in G1 is sufficient to support C1.

A1(C1, C2): Fact in G1 would necessarily support the projection in C1 and other factors would not change the prediction.

A2(C2, C3): Funding needed for education is determined by factor in C1 (the number of students).

A3 (C2, C4): Funding needed for playing fields and other facilities is determined by factor in C1.

A4 (C6): Trend in C1 would lead to C6. (need to consider other factors)


model essay


The committee recommends reducing budget for education and athletic fields in order to finance facilities and programs for adults based on the observation that the birthrate is declining and the projection that the enrolments in public schools will decrease. We need more evidence about birthrates of the city and other demographic information, the public schools, the playing fields and the facilities and programs for adults in order to evaluate the recommendation.

FIrst of all, it is difficult to confirm that the birthrate of Calatrava has indeed declined just based on the comparison of the current year data with the data five years ago. Maybe the birth rate five years ago was unusually high due to some extraneous factors and excluding that data the birthrates have steadily increased or remain stable over the past 5 years. We need more comprehensive data about the birth rates in each year in the past 5 years to recognize the trend accurately.

It is also immature to predict that the enrollment in public schools will drop dramatically and the need of funding for education will decrease even if the birthrates have decreased. Maybe there would be students from other cities or even abroad who would study in the public schools here. If so, the enrollment may not decrease that much. Also, the public schools may also need money to upgrade their infrastructure and equipment or introduce new teacher training programs to improve the quality of education. The committee should gather more information about what the public schools need in the next 10 years before making any decisions about the education budgets.

The decision to cut funding for playing fields needs to be justified with more evidence about the demand for the facilities and the cost of maintaining them. The assumption here is that the fields are mainly for school children and with the expected decrease in enrollment, there would be no need to put more money to them. But maybe adults also enjoy the playing fields and other recreational facilities. If this is the case, the fields and facilities would deserve additional funding. Also, we need to take into account the maintainance and staffing cost for the fields and facilities. Funding should not be reduced if doing so would affect the normal operation of the facilities.

The committee also suggests that the money can be saved to finance programs and facilities for adults. But it is not clear on what basis it anticipates the increase of adult population in the city. It is possible that in the next 10 years some adults may choose to leave the city and reduce the demand for the facilities and programs. In fact, if the city reduces the funding for education and childrens facilities, the families with young children may have more incentives to join other cities where better education and facilities for children are available.

Overall speaking, we need more evidence about the issues discussed above to evaluate the recommendation of the committee.



Argument范文与提纲目录(tesolchina)
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