Letter Essay, Research Paper

When examining an issue it is essential that you look only at the facts and not let

your opinion get in the way of what is known to be truth. Such is the case in the

school budget issue, both groups clearly have their own ideas of what is right for

the school and it is my job as a city council member to examine the facts and the

different viewpoints to garner my own opinion.

There are two sides of this issue, there is the conservative viewpoint which

believes that you should increase spending with the rate of inflation which would

lead to a marginally smaller budget than the liberal viewpoint which would

devote 75% of the total budget to the schools.

Based on the conservative viewpoint, which believes the amount of money

should be increased by the rate of inflation which is 4% the school budget would

amount to approximately 130 million dollars compared to the mayors proposed

budget of 134 million dollars. The conservatives also believe that the total budget

should be reduced to 184 million from 185 million.

The Liberals have a completely different viewpoint, stating that the budget has

always devoted 75% to the school budget and they see no reason why the city

should change now. With the new budget of 185 million dollars, the liberals are

asking for a budget of 138 million dollars which is 75% of the new budget. They

would keep the budget at 185 million unlike the conservatives who want to

reduce it by 1 million dollars.

The Conservatives say the school budget should be held to an inflation rate

increase which would be a 4% increase. So the amount they wish to de vote to

the school budget does line up with the math in the case, because with a 4%

increase from before the budget would be about 130 million dollars.

The student population has increased at a rate of 3.5% from two years ago. The

city has also increased at 3%. The reason I know this is that I found the percent

increase in city and student population over two years. This doesn t really affect

my decision at all because a school is more important than a rate of change

because student s are the future leaders of the country so we shouldn t sacrifice

their education for politics.

Mathematically all the facts line up with the proposed budgets by both the

liberals and the conservatives so basically this is a cut and dry issue.

I will vote for the liberals position because schools have always been funded at 75%

and I see no reason to change that policy. I think children deserve more than the

rate of inflation, because they are our future and no rate can change the fact that

they need the right amount of funding to keep the schools