Hi
Candidate: Our city's students have suffered long enough. Over the mayor's four years in office, our district's math and science scores have hovered well below the national average, even while our average teacher's salary has increased. Our student-per-class ratio is laughable, yet he has made no progress on building a new school. He simply cannot be trusted with our children's future; if you care about education, I am the only candidate you can support.
Discuss how well reasoned you find this argument. In your discussion be sure to analyze the line of reasoning and the use of evidence in the argument. For example, you may need to consider what questionable assumptions underlie the thinking and what alternative explanations or counterexamples might weaken the conclusion. You can also discuss what sort of evidence would strengthen or refute the argument, what changes in the argument would make it more logically sound, and what, if anything, would help you better evaluate its conclusion.
Quote:
The argument claims that the author of the candidate is the only candidate one must support, if one cares about the education in the city. This is based on the premise that during the incumbent mayor's four years in office, the district's math and science scores have hovered below the national average, even while the average teacher's salary has increased. The argument also relies on the idea that even though the student-per-class ratio is unacceptable, yet the current mayor has made no progress on building a new school.
Stated in this manner, the argument is weak and reveals examples of leap of faith and poor reasoning. The argument also fails to take into account several factors based on which it could be evaluated. The argument also relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence. Hence, the argument is unconvincing and has several flaws.
The first issue to be addressed is whether the teachers are to be blamed for the children's poor performance in math and science tests. Clearly one could argue that this need be the case. If some other factor is acting as a deterrent to the children's education then clearly the argument would stand weakened. For example, if a pandemic were to happen and learning were to switch to online mode, then, it would have been reasonable to assume that without the availability of a personal computer, which may be unaffordable for children from an economically disadvantaged background, children would be unable to attend classes and hence perform poorly on tests. Therefore, blaming teachers for the poor outcome is national tests in clearly unjustified. Had the author mentioned that the children's poor performance in tests has happened despite all other external factors remaining unchanged then it would have been much simpler to evaluate the argument.
The argument also relies on the idea that even though the student-per-class ratio is unacceptably high, yet the incumbent mayor has made no progress on building a new school. This may not always be the case. As building a new school requires clearances from the relevant state authorities, it is possible that the incumbent mayor may have already applied for permission for building a new school and the delay in granting the permission may be entirely a fault of the relevant state education department. If the state authorities already have several such requests and limited man-power then processing these requests is bound to be a long and drawn out process. Had the author mentioned that the mayor has not taken any steps in pursuit of building a new school, then the candidate's reasoning would have been much better received.
In conclusion, while at first it may appear that the mayoral candidate's accusations of the incumbent mayor are well founded, a careful analysis reveals that this is certainly not the case. Several other factors such as those mentioned above need to be taken into consideration before a verdict on the effectiveness or lack thereof the incumbent mayor's actions can be judged.
Sajjad1994 , how would you rate this? Thank you