Rhetorical Analysis

Title: Cutting Corners on Education Legislation

Author: Ben Meade

Date: 30 September 2012

Topic: Proposition 30

Analysis of Argument

Exigence: The state of California's financial crisis has led to insecurity in funding for California public K-12 schools, Community Colleges, California State Universities and the University of California. Proposition 30 is a proposed amendment of the state constitution that would raise sales tax and income tax on earners above 250,000 dollars per year.

Intended Audience: The primary audience for this op-ed is supporters of Proposition 30. The secondary audience is those opposed to Proposition 30. The tertiary audience is undecided voters.

Purpose: To bring about awareness that Proposition 30 is incomplete, and invites problems we as a state will have to deal with again. This article is written with the intention of convincing writers to demand comprehensive reform concerning California public education.

Claims: Other government entitlements are allocated proportional to need, rather than proportional to revenue.

Public safety needs should be legislated separately.

Funds are not secure in allocation.

Rhetorical analysis:

Writer's Strategy 1: The Department of Veterans Affairs, and other states Department of Corrections facilities are one such example. Public education should be funded proportionately to need based on standards.

Writer's Strategy 2: A portion of the funds raised through Proposition 30 would go to public safety, like law enforcement. What does Law enforcement have to do with public education?

Writer's Strategy 3: Disproportionate taxation divides and alienates groups within California's constituency. This decreases it's chance of passing.

Reader effect 1: The reader chooses to support further legislation regardless of Proposition 30's passage concerning funding for public schools based on need rather than state revenue.

Reader effect 2: The reader chooses to support legislation solely for education, without additional provisions that the opposition may take advantage of.

Reader effect 3: Readers who face an income tax increase and those that don't choose to support future legislation based on taxation proportional to income for all tax brackets. Reader recognizes this increases the probability of success for the proposition.  

Annotated bibliography

"California Proposition 30, Sales and Income Tax Increase (2012)." Ballotpedia. Ballotpedia, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_Proposition_30,_Sales_and_Income_Tax_Increase_(2012)>.

This website provides information regarding ballot initiatives and elections proposed to voters in the style of an online encyclopedia such as Wikipedia. It defines the amendment in question, provides supporting and opposing arguments, supporting and opposing funding information as well as the legislation process necessary to ratify the initiated amendment. Of particular interest is the list of donors as well as donation amounts. Additionally, the article's topical arguments for and against proposition 30 are quoted and cited from original supporting and opposing publications. External links are provided for the government's fiscal analysis of the proposition, polling data regarding support of polled possible voters, signature requirements, and most importantly, links for in-text citations.

Reynolds, Mark. "Unfiltered Political News. For You. By You." Independent Voter Network. Independent Voter Network, 10 Sept. 2012. Web. 24 Sept. 2012. <http://ivn.us/2012/09/10/proposition-30-wont-fix-california-budget-issues/>.

The author of this article focuses on California's democratic processes with regard to ballot initiatives and spending within the state. He provides specific commentary on the process by which California funds the state government, and critiques its effectiveness. He points out that Californians have the ability to vote on proposition 30, potentially limiting the now 6 billion dollars proposed to be cut from education, but Californians do not receive a democratic choice in regards to spending. The author notes that this is of significance as state corrections accounts for 4 billion more in spending than the states institutions for higher learning, namely the UC and State colleges. The author's commentary suggests that budgetary decisions are too sensitive, and require too much research and expertise for average voters. It is the author's commentary that fiscal issues should reside in the hands of elected legislators, rather than the voting populace. He supports this commentary with spending statistics relative to the other states in the country. In order to accomplish this, the author suggests lengthening term limits in the California legislature to allow representatives adequate time to solve budget crises.

Week Two, Readers Response One

 In “Against School,” an essay written by John Taylor Gatto, the author critiques the American public secondary school system. The author offers a harshly negative appraisal of our public school system. It is a conclusion I think most would support given recent rankings of secondary students' test scores world-wide, but the essay concerns less the evaluation of American students' performance itself, but greater the cause of their performance. Gatto argues that the system that mandates and supplies the education criticized intentionally “dumbs down” American children for the purposes of creating a docile peasant class. I found his rhetoric stirring, but his evidence flimsy, and his supporting claims ultimately self-defeating.

One of the first and weakest defenses presented is that school is not necessary at all. He lists successful Americans who did not attend public secondary school. But these facts bear no relevance to the consequences for students who did attend secondary school. Where I think it obvious that not every student benefits greatly from public high school, it would seem like a stretch to suggest that the education of our children would be enhanced by closing all public high schools, because they should do better. Gatto doesn't explicitly suggest this, but it's the next logical step in his model.

Next, Gatto compares the American secondary school system to Napoleonic Era Prussian military academies. His support for this claim seems weaker still. Gatto describes military aides to George Washington during the American revolution, and the fact that some regions of the United States had German Speaking populations. But these facts once again do not support the idea that our secondary schools would be modeled after something that existed an ocean away in space and two hundred years ago in time. All those constraints aside, the lack of any record of such a plan leaves this claim speculative at best. The next best support mustered is the vague assertion that James Bryant Conant and Alexander Inglis found such a model appealing.

Perhaps the biggest flaw in this argument is the massive and monolithic government infrastructure that would be necessary to perform such an agenda. It is difficult to imagine a government agency in which all administrators would be unified in the intentional production of a servile proletariat. To call it a conspiracy theory would be an understatement. Further, all of those educators and administrators complicit in the stiffing of creativity and genius would themselves have to be of the class they were repressing.

I think its clear that public secondary school education is not a national priority in this country, and it fails many students. Young Americans with little chance at higher education are also more likely to fall into an unskilled labor class. But Occam's Razor holds that the simplest explanation tends to be the most likely. Isn't it more likely that we don't incentivize our teachers properly to attract the best educators? Isn't it more likely that our curriculum is stale and regimented to provide a road map for our less talented teachers? Isn't it more likely that great teachers get easily frustrated by mediocre administrators?

Prop 30 link

http://ivn.us/2012/09/10/proposition-30-wont-fix-california-budget-issues/

Week One

 In Michael Moore's essay, “Idiot Nation,” the author inspects the state of the American educational system. He offers a grim assessment of the quality of education offered in public schools. Moore uses two arguments to generally explain why he finds the education offered in public schools so dismal. The first is that education is not a priority fully embraced by ruling politicians in America. The second is that our free market system of commerce encourages corporations and other large financial interests to market to school children through the funding of school activities of questionable educational value.

Moore begins his opening argument with his experience with an an ESPN game show, Two-Minute Drill. He describes contestants' encyclopedic knowledge of sports trivia, and contrasts that expertise with his view of American ignorance of international affairs. To prove his case for American ignorance he cites a study in which “A group of 556 seniors at fifty-five prestigious American universities (e.g., Harvard, Yale, Stanford) were given a multiple-choice test consisting of questions that were described as 'high school level.' Thirty-four questions were asked. These top students could only answer 53 percent of them correctly. And only one student got them all right,” (Moore). Where this may seem a damning argument in itself, we should take note that this is incidental evidence. The study is not cited for our review, and that calls into question the academic value of such a claim. Further, we could probably find members of motorcycle clubs that would have great knowledge of the workings of their motorcycles mechanically, and nutritionists that could not fully identify the nutritional value of assorted flora and fauna from memory. Does that mean that Americans know more about motorcycles than nutrition? Moore continues by pointing out that teachers have been belittled in public media. But when investigated we can see that these are contributors and columnists in opinion sections of the mentioned newspapers. Once again, a reliance on incidental evidence. Moor rounds out his argument with a pop quiz he expects most elected politicians to fail.

Moore's second argument begins with observations on corporate interests contributions to schools. He points out that most of these contributions come with strings attached, such as the printing of logos on sports jerseys, a plan for distributing gift cards, or simply rights to sell products to students on campus. The examples he presents are too numerous to be adequately described in this response, but one study by the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education (CACE), stands out. It found that corporate sponsorship has increased by 248 percent in the last ten years in high schools. The essay itself does not state the date the study was published, however the most recent edition of the textbook in which the essay is contained was published in 2010. This argument seems to carry a bit more water than finding specific groups who fail pop quizzes, but we should still notice the incidental nature of most of his evidence.

In essence, Moore raises significant questions about the state of public education in America, but fails to prove his case through the use of evidence. His essay is inflammatory and thought provoking, but ultimately lacking in support of a thesis. Where it would seem clear that questionable judgment has been executing the education of our children, Moore presents no greater plan for our kids education, other than a list of subversive actions that would point out what we already know about our public schools. 

I am...

I am an aspiring astrophysicist. I want to study the deepest and most fundamental mysteries of the cosmos. I find that the joy of discovery is my greatest passion. I also believe in giving back to my community through volunteer service. I participate in the Student Veterans of Cabrillo which is allied with several non-profit organizations.

I believe my gifts lie in judgement and candor. I am known among my friends as having a calm demeanor under pressure and I tend to speak my mind, even when it is inconvenient. I hope to learn from my fellow students and share my experience with them as well. I look forward to working with everyone and sharing a great learning venture!