Travis County Central Health Tax Increase

Randy Samuelson argues that voters should vote no on proposition one, which will increase property taxes to fund construction of a new medical school in "Opposing the Travis County Central Health tax increase" which can be found on Blue Dot Blues' blog.  He also believes that the tax increase is actually a way to increase medicaid funding from the federal government.

This article was written to people who are interested in understanding what this proposition means. Samuelson is a State Republican Executive Committeeman for Senate District. The fact that he works in the political world both gives him credit and takes some away.  Because of his job the reader believes that he knows the facts of the issue and his opinion is trustworthy, however the reader is also aware that many people will lie or stretch the truth in order to make citizens vote a certain way therefore all his facts should be double checked by a nonpartisan source.

Samuelson starts out by explaining that the property tax increase will cost about $125 per year for the average homeowner and this money will be used for a new medical school.  He goes on to state that universities have been funding their own medical schools with out the government's help. Samuelson then states that the true reason for the tax increase is to have an increase in medicaid funding through the federal government matching funds.  For the reader this is a small red flag, he doesn't support this theory with any facts which makes the reader wonder if this is true or if he is just making a connection up.  This weakness in the facts weakens his overall argument.

Samuelson then goes on to write about how the medicaid system is broken and continually loosing money which is a situation the United States cannot afford with their current debt problem. This argument assumes that the reader agrees with the fact that the medicare system isn't sustainable and it should be based off a free market model.  With that assumption it is easy for the reader to agree with his claim that they should vote no for proposition one.

Even though he had a major weakness in his argument which I didn't really follow. I still agree with him because right now  the people need as much money as they can get and increasing property taxes will only take away money from people and put it into a project that could funded through other means.

Standardized Testing

In John Young's "Signs of fed up Spring" Young argues for the people of Texas to protest and create change in the schools and their use of standardized testing.  Though Young does use some facts in this article to support his argument he mostly uses emotional persuasion.

This article is written to persons concerned with the education system. The type of persuasion Young uses wouldn't convince people who had no previous knowledge of the education system.  Young's lack of facts in this article reveals that he expected his readers to know of the problems that have arisen from standardized testing.

"Signs of fed up Spring" can be found on the statesmen.com. Since the article has been posted on a trusted news web site. Some of their credibility is transferred to Young which makes gives his argument more strength.

Young assumes that people believe that standardized testing has become a problem. With this assumption he is then able to build on that belief and persuade people to become involved and try to change how standardized testing is used in schools. This argument is persuasive the passion with which he writes encourages the reader to do something about the current problem.  Young also quotes many predominant people who believe that standardized testing has hindered the student's ability to learn.