According to the letter to the editor of Parson City's local newspaper, it has been claimed that Parson City residents
put more emphasis on good public education than those of Blue City. However, there needs more specific evidence to be garnered
and analyzed before hastily accepting the passage's argument.
To begin with, the most urgent evidence to gather is the detailed demographic breakdowns of the both cities' populations. Parson City might have higher proportions of children and adolescents than the Blue City does. This implies that the Parson City deals with
a greater number of students and thus demands for fundings as well as asistances on the schools than the Blue City does.
Such difference would not mean that the former city cares more about the public education but rather the Parson
City has higher usages and investment of more resources to satisfy such needs of the population. If the demographics of the two cities indeed come out to be different, ideally Parson City consisted more of the younger populations, would gravely weaken the passage's argument.
In addition to the demographics, one has to examine the two cities' monetary spendings on the public schools of the previous years.
One potential case could be that Parson City uncannily has invested a lot more fundings on public schools, maybe to construct a new one or upgrade old facilities, this year, whereas the latter city has not planned out any of financially burdensome acitivites on public schools. This case can be attested by parsing the past spendings of the two cities; if the data proves Parson City's higher investment in public school is an outlier while its past spendings stand comparable to those of Blue City, the argument loses its validity further.
Last noteworthy evidence to discover is the number of private school students in the cites. Although the passage announces that a majority of students attend public schools, one has to check whether there exists a substantial number of students go to private rather than public. Blue City's subpar investments in public schools compared to Parson City's might be elucidated on the fact that Blue City has more students in private schools. This would suggest that less students go to public schools, thus the city, whose goal is to maximize and optimize its tax fundings, would wisely spend on other more needed sectors. Likewise, if Blue City has more private school students than the former, one would more likely question the passage's argument.
Despite all the evidence compiled and displayed, the passage fails to purvey a cogent argument. In fact, the passage lacks many evidences one has to unearth and grasp to earn a complete understanding of the passage's proposal. Thus, it can be concluded that it is too foolhardy to naively accept the passage as the truth before all the evidences and their implications are understood.