Self-study
Support A nationwide poll of students, parents, and teachers showed that over 90 percent believe that an appropriate percentage of their school's budget is being spent on student counseling programs. ██ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████ ██ █ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████████ █████████
Summarize Argument
The argument concludes that any large increase in a school’s budget should be spent on something besides student counseling programs since most of those polled think a proper percentage of their school’s budget goes toward these programs.
Identify and Describe Flaw
This is a cookie-cutter percentage-to-numbers flaw. The author reasons that since most of those polled think the correct portion of their school’s funds go toward student counseling programs, schools shouldn’t allocate significant budget increases to these programs.
However, just because most polled agree with the percentage of their school’s budget going toward the programs, that doesn’t necessarily mean they believe enough is being spent on the programs. The percentage of a school’s budget that should go to a program is a different consideration than the amount of money that should go to that program.
12.
Which one of the following █████████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
The argument confuses █ ████ ███████████ ████ █ ██████ █████████████
The argument doesn’t discuss a coincidence and no causal relationship is presented.
b
The argument confuses ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ████████
This is the flaw the argument commits. While over 90% of students, parents, and teachers believe an appropriate percentage of their school’s budget is going toward student counseling programs, we have no idea if they agree with the sheer number of dollars going to the programs.
c
The argument fails ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████
The argument doesn’t make this presumption. The argument doesn’t make any claims about the total budget of schools or the views of students, parents, and teachers about total budgets.
d
The argument fails ██ ████████ ███ ███████████ ████ █████ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ████████ ██ ████ ███████████
The argument isn’t concerned with how money could be saved. It only addresses the views of students, parents, and teachers about their school’s spending on student counseling programs.
e
The argument fails ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ █████ ██ █ ████████ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ███ █████ █████████
It’s not clear that the argument doesn’t consider this. We don’t know whether the argument has considered that a school spending more money on one program could mean the school can’t spend more money on a different program.