Proposal

Proposition 30 was created to fund education and stop the cut backs on schools, tuition hikes, layoffs and downsizing class size and guarantee local public safety funds. As decided in class the extended audience is: undecided voters, uninformed voters, busy voters, non-voters as well as opposing voters. The purpose of this temporary tax is to fund education and guarantee local public safety while avoiding cutting class size, enrollment and layoffs. The claims this proposition if passed, will bring in about $6 billion a year, increases personal income tax on annual earnings over $250,000 for seven years as well as sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years. It allocates temporary tax revenues 89% to K–12 schools and 11% to community colleges.

Evidence

The very highest earners will pay more for seven years. The sales tax provision will be in effect for four years. Under prop 30, money raised for schools is directed into a special fund for public schools that the legislature can’t touch. Annual audits will insure Prop. 30 funds raised for schools are only spent on schools. No money can be used for administration. If prop 30 doesn’t pass schools K-12 gets cut $5.5 billion which will eliminate three weeks of school and CSU’s get cut $250 million which will increase tuition tremendously.

Writer’s strategy

Pathos:  Any good job requires at least a college degree. I attended public school from kindergarten to my freshman year. In high school a yard supervisor caught a group of eight students skipping class to smoke marijuana on school campus and the only thing he did was put his clip board up covering his eyes and said “they don’t pay me enough to see this” and proceeded to walk away. All I wanted to do was drop out drop out of high school. Eventually I started at a private school with great teachers that helped each student in every subject. They taught me that I could learn and actually graduate high school. I went from fighting school to wanting to go to learn. Once I figured out I could achieve success I decided I was going to go to college and graduate there too. My very first class at Cabrillo, there was at least 15 people on the wait list and the room was filled with students sitting at desks as well as on the ground and standing in the back. 

Ethos: As I stated before I am a college student attending community college and I have seen the cut backs on class sizes and the increase of fees due to limited funding over the past two years. I believe that if proposition 30 passes it will allow for more students to attend college. Over the last few years Cabrillo College has had to cut 400 classes and 47 full time staff jobs have been eliminated. Something needs to change so students can receive an education and staff can keep their jobs.

Logos: If proposition passes it will allow more students to attend college and the K-12 schools will have enough resources to educate and prepare student for college. The people that have make a lot of money tend to spend it on unnecessary things. I don’t think they really need statues in their houses or cars that cost upwards of $800,000. Those things are all very nice but I think if they could help us to be educated is much more rewarding in the long run. Material things won’t last forever but an education and opportunities will.

  

Reader effect

Pathos: I hope that the people reading this will realize that I personally experienced going to school and hating it only wanting to drop out until I found out I could achieve an education which made me want to further my education. I hope they can reflect on my experiences at school and realize that schools do need proper funding to insure students receive a proper education.

Ethos: I hope the reader see’s that I have only been in college for two years and I am already seeing the change resulting from inadequate funds.

Logos: My intentions are to raise awareness to the fact that the upper class spends money on unnecessary materialistic things. They are very nice but they aren’t needed to survive in the world but an education is. I hope the reader can understand what my point is and they can reflect on any really nice, expensive thing they personally saw that a wealthy person bought and think “wow that is so nice but why would someone spend that much money for it”.

yes on prop 30

Yes on proposition 30

·         It is only a temporary tax that will affect all of California to benefit schools and education that will only raise the sales tax by a quarter of a cent for every dollar for four years.

·         It will however raise income taxes on people that make over $250,000 a year. Currently those that are already making over $250,000 a year, have a 9.3 marginal tax rate. If prop 30 passes it will only increase their tax by 1%. See chart

                

Legislative Analyst Office

·         These new tax rates would affect about 1 percent of California PIT filers.

·         Increased state tax revenues through 2018-19, averaging about $6 billion annually over the next few years. Revenues available for funding state budget. In 2012-13, planned spending reductions, primarily to education programs, would not occur.

·         A YES vote on this measure means: The state would increase personal income taxes on high-income taxpayers for seven years and sales taxes for four years. The new tax revenues would be available to fund programs in the state budget.

·         A NO vote on this measure means: The state would not increase personal income taxes or sales taxes. State spending reductions approximately $6 billion, primarily to education programs, would take effect in 2012-13.

Annotated Bibliography

Schwab, David. "Brown: Proposition 30 Failure Would Result in Devastating Cuts to Education." Swrnn.com. City News Service, 21 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Sept. 2012. <http://www.swrnn.com/2012/08/21/brown-proposition-30-failure-would-result-in-devastating-cuts-to-education/>.

This is an op-ed article written by David Schwab for city news. He uses many quotes from Governor Jerry Brown as well as other influential people in the community voicing their thoughts and opinions. Amongst the people voicing there opinions are community college teachers. Schwab also includes quotes by others like the senior advisor against proposition 30 stating that if it is passed state spending would be at it’s highest. He mentions another measure, proposition 38, which would increase taxes to help finance education as well. Only proposition 38 would increase personal income tax rates for 12 years for annual earnings over $7,316. This is a perfect example of logos, it has a ton of facts and logical reasoning. This article has given me an abundance of resources to use quotes from influential people on both sides of proposition 30 for my research article.

California. State Legislature. Attorney General. TEMPORARY TAXES TO FUND EDUCATION. GUARANTEED LOCAL PUBLIC SAFETY FUNDING. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. By Kamala Harris. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Sos.ca.gov. Web. 12 Sept. 2012.

I found this website to be very informative while researching proposition 30. It is the official title and summary written by the attorney general that will be on the November 2012 ballots. It explains the benefits if proposition 30 is passed and it also explains what will happen if it is rejected. Proposition 30 is an attempt to temporarily tax people that make over $250,000 a year for seven years to fund education, local public safety as well as an initiative constitutional amendment. It will also increase sales and use tax by ¼ cent for four years, bring temporary tax revenues 89% to K–12 schools and 11% to community colleges and it guarantees funding from the state to local governments for public safety officers. If proposition 30 is approved it will bring in about six billion dollars and help balance the state budget through 2019. Ethos is the main appeal within this article because it was written directly from the state legislature and it will be presented on the ballots in the exact same format.

Dickerson, Marla. "California Economist Says State Should Dump Proposition 13." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2012.  <http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/30/business/la-fi-mo-california-economist-says-dump-proposition-13-20120330>.

This article was written by Marla Dickerson about a former UCLA economist, Christopher Thornberg, who declared war on proposition 13. He argues that the 1978 ballot measure that capped property taxes in California was “one of the most horrendous, unfair, regressive taxes in the history of the United States.” Marla explains Thornberg’s thoughts and reasoning and within her article she, gives him the benefit of the doubt by summarizing the main reasons behind his strong stance against proposition 13.  This article has explained a lot about the doubts of proposition 13 but it doesn’t really explain what proposition 13 is. I think it would have been a little better if there would have been more information about the proposition besides the fact it was on the ballots in 1978, 14 years before I was born.

RR #1

Sara Estrada
English 2
Reader Response

Against schools

By John Taylor Gatto 

      John Gatto expresses his belief as to why schools are boring and mandatory schooling is unnecessary. He uses all of Aristotles appeals in this passage very effectively. He uses ethos to provide his credibility as a teacher for more than 20years, pathos by relating public schooling to almost every American citizen and logos by providing evidence of many well known Americans that did not attend mandatory schooling. He along with Inglis devised six unstated purposes of public schooling; the adjustive or adaptive function, the integrating function, the diagnostic and directive function, the differentiating function, the selective function and the propaedeutic function. 

       The adjustive or adaptive function; states "schools are to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority" which leads to critical judgement while destroying the ideas that useful or interesting ideas should be taught due to the lack of 'reflexive obedience' testing. The integrating function; has the intention to make all the children alike because people who conform are predictable. The diagnostic and directive function; decides a students "proper social role" by test scores.The differentiating function; after the students social role is determined they are grouped with other students classified in the same social role in order to teach them only as far as the social machine allows.The selective function; relates to Darwins theory of "favored races" in order to improve the breeding stock, schools label the unfit with bad grades or remedial placement clearly enough so their peers will accept them as inferior and bar them from "reproductive sweepstakes". The propaedeutic function; the societal system implied by these rules will require an elite group of caretakers, in which a small portion of the students will be taught how to manage this system, watch over and control a dumbed down population so the government might continue unchallenged and corporations might never want for obedient labor. 

              My prior educational experience very much supports Gattos six unstated purposes of public schooling. I attended public school from kindergarten until my freshman year in high school, the I transferred to a private school. From kindergarten up until 9th grade I can always remember being bored in class and taught to obey all authority, even if they were out right wrong. We never studied anything remotely exciting or useful and I was judged for not performing well on tests because I didn't find the subject interesting. We all had to dress alike, not in uniforms but we had a strict dress code. Every semester we had standardized test scores that determined what placement and class we would be in and we never learned anything except what we already knew. I also recall throughout elementary school and middle school students placed in remedial classes or continuously received poor grades, almost all of the other students classified them as dumb and did not want to associate with the "dumb kids", let alone date them. There was always a small group of students that got special privileges  from the teachers because they got the best grades which included many outings with the teachers where they taught leadership skills to the students. 

               After I transferred to a private school my freshman year, all of these six functions disappeared, school became fun and exciting which included field trips and relatable topics, such as going to UCSC on April 20th, we had a very diverse student population, the students as well as teachers helped other students with assignments and tests to improve their scores and the students that received the low score wasn't judged any differently. the class sizes were small but filled with students of the same grade, students found other students attractive based on appearance and personality as opposed to grades in school, we were all treated equally as individuals and as a group fitting each individuals needs as well as maintaining the whole group, teachers and students needs.

Prop. 30 URL

http://www.swrnn.com/2012/08/21/brown-proposition-30-failure-would-result-in-devastating-cuts-to-education/

Week 1

I commented on Jorge C., Jacob I., Zack N., Ethan A. and Mark R. I am posts.