The following appeared in a letter to the editor of Parson City s local newspaper In our region of Trillura the majority of money spent on the schools that most students attend the city run public schools comes from taxes that each city government collect

The author asserts that Parson City residents place a higher value on providing good education to public schools that Blue City residents. He has come to this conclusion based off the findings that Parson City has recently spent almost twice as much per year on public school funding than Blue City residents. However, before the strength of this argument can be properly evaluated, three pieces of evidence must be assessed.

First of all, the author is comparing Parson City residents to Blue City residents. However, it is unknown whether the residents are the ones who are responsible for determining the cities budgetary priorities. That being said, the author must prove that the residents are in fact in control. Perhaps budgetary priorities are single handily determined by the city counsel, who do not account for the opinions of their residents. It is also possible that the Parson City’s ruler did not disclose his plans to allocate a greater budget for public schools. If this is true, then the author cannot argue that Parson City residents value good education more than Blue City residents, as the residents were not involved in this decision.

Next, the author must identify what Parson City schools are spending their funding on. It may be the case that Parson City schools are devoting the majority of their funding towards renovating the external and internal structure of the school. It is also possible that they are spending money on newer vending machines or new flooring. Alternatively, perhaps Blue City schools are allocating all of their money towards higher-quality textbooks and hiring accessible, well-trained tutors for their students. If any of the above are true, then Parson City residents are not concerned with good education – rather they value contributing to visually presentable schools.

Lastly, what are the socio-economic statuses of residents in Parson City and Blue City? Perhaps Parson City is a high-class area with all residents receiving high-income. Alternatively, Blue City residents may be of middle to lower class residents whose gross income is far less than Parson City’s. As a result, it is possible that Parson City residents are required to pay more taxes than Blue City residents. If the above is true, then it is possible that Blue City cannot afford to allocate greater funds towards schools, even if they value good education; thus, the authors argument would not hold water.

In conclusion, the argument lacks 3 important pieces of evidence. Without this additional information, the strength of the argument cannot be properly evaluated; and thus, the authors cannot hold water. However, if the author is able to provide the evidence requested above, then his argument would be significantly sttrengthned.