Equalization of funding is desirable for Texas public school

my value
i kinda forgot to mention my value is justice, sorry

Same here, seems to be a very popular value

Well, for that reason, i must find another. Can't go with the crowd, ya know. Must push against it. I am a Taurus, if that helps...hopelessly bull-headed. (grinns devilishly) I really need to research this one better.

I think this is one of the worst LD topics I've ever had to debate. It is also the first state topic I've seen introduced. I think the main values that we'll run up against will be justice, equality, legality, categorical imperitive, utilitarianism (which is on every topic anyway), democracy, and education. both sides pressure the debators to provide a plan and this generally excludes quite a bit of philosophical application. Would ya'll agree?

I'd have to agree, I did alright on the last one, and I was going to really apply myself on this one, but then when I heard what it was I was kind of pissed because it's so...yeah...

Values
Can anyone recommend a good philosophy site or some good values that won't be popular? I've thought of a few myself but they'd come across as opinionated. Any help would be appreciated.
-Trump

Why not popular values? I doubt the judge is going to care much if you use the same one as a few other people.

I just had a sudden change of mind, I'm going to use equality as my value, an even easier way, I'd probably be good if I wasn't so lazy...

I FOUND SOMETHING!
For affirmative, one thing you could use is Rousseau's--or is it Rawls' I forget it's late-- theories, which always protect the equality of opportunity. To quote the old song: "Let the children lead the way" cuz they have all the opportunities.

Also, for negative, Ayn Rand has a lot on how man should not sacrifice himself for another person. Basically, no man should be forced to give up money on his kid's education to someone with less money for their kid's education. Doing that is irrational because education does not matter since man is simply matter anyways.

Hope you like, I'm open to any new ideas for my case, too, i've got a private school debate thing comin up in april.

a different point of view


this is probably going to offend some people but i feel that it needs to be said......
okay so i am hearing everyone bash the new topic, but i think we could have fun with it. maybe i am just so into debate that i like every topic, but i think people should at least try to see the good in it before you bash it.

Well I was right. I debated this topic yesterday and I went up against justice all three times. -_-" I heard a good case using tax base and taxation w/o representation, but it is so pragmatic that I think it kind of loses the philosophical appeal of LD. Anyway, I went 3-0 with my cases. How have all of your cases done? Any great holes shot in any of them yet?

pragmatism good approach?
maybe pragmatism is a good approach for a negative case, though. the robin hood act is already in place in my area of texas and it's NOT working. equalization of funding has not done ANYTHING to help the educational quality around here. most of the schools suck. since it's not working, it's not useful, so maybe we shouldn't even look at equalizing funds and take another approach to that.

There is a lot of evidence that points to the fact that money does not always mean a better education. Some districts in the US spend up to $16,000 per pupil and are still rated unsatisfactory, while others spend as little as $4,500 and are rated exemplary. Mind you, this is not in Texas, but I still think you can use national statistics. The way money effects education is not going to change simply because of what state you are in. District of Columbia for example has abysmal test scores, but they spend more per pupil than almost any other state. Most rich schools spend their money on vulgar displays of wealth like gigantic athletic stadiums. More than that, administrators see more of that extra money in their paycheck than teachers do. You can't exactly say that money helps keep adequate teachers with that going on.

For the aff you could argue that not all schools use their money that way, and poorer districts don't have a choice in how to use their money if they don't have any. Why be punished because of the way some rich schools use their finances?

Knowledge, the Common Good, Capitalism, Validity of the Constitution, and the American Spirit are some slightly less common values if you need help there.

I'm really glad I found this place. It helped me get a good start on my cases. I'm running American Spirit and Education for the Aff. Probably gonna use Capitalism and Validity of the Constitution for the Neg. You can go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/txconst/toc.html to see a copy of the Texas Constitution. I'm fairly certain the Robinhood Plan violated Article 7, Section 6. It says something in their about how permanent school funds that districts draw from the county can only be taken away through the county commissioner (if I interpreted correctly), so unless every county commissioner agrees to it, it violates the constitution.

Welcome LM, will work, rmrrose, spastic, and all the rest of you newbies.

I'm looking forward to eavesdropping on you as you practice.

PDiddie, you're so sweet. We need an old fart like you to give us the other, older perspective. And just so ya know, you brought that on yourself with the "I walked to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways" thing. I don't know, either I am getting soft, or I am starting to get in to this topic

Why, you little whippersnapper...

thank all of you
Thanks everybody, all of the advice, etc is very useful. As somebody mentioned earlier we should approach the negative as the fact that equilization does not necesarily mean success. Everybody wants for schools to be succesful and that is the whole point of this debate- equilization will not make it work. Wilmer-hutchison in Dallas is a perfect example. Not to mention, the robin hood plan is utterly useless to. There are hundreds of sites protesting it's ineffectiveness-even if they are for equality. Advice: look up IDRA newsletter volume XXXI November-December 2004 and if anybody wants school finance laws just for background and possible use to refute your opponent just ask me. I have all the school finance laws of texas. I also have some baylor briefs-see ya later.

Yeah for the neg I wanted to run efficiency as my value but I couldn't come up with a good criterion. Any suggestions?

Thanks PDiddie!

rmrrose, you could use education. Then you are talking about the efficiency of education as the most important value in the topic, which works out great. You can talk about poor schools suddenly having a lot of money is like giving a teen a credit card. Most of the time, the schools will spend it on stuff not benificial to the district (athletic stadiums, higher administrative wages, etc.). Use facts about rich districts rate unsatisfactory, and poorer areas with exemplarary (sp?) schools.

You could also use government and go from the angle that when recapture went into effect, the state funding for school decreased.

Hope that helps.

arg, Pirate, where did you get your signiture? *chill bumps* I just read a WW2 book.