Prop 30 Annotated Bibliography

Prop 30 Annotated Bibliography

1.

"Yes on Prop 30 -- Take a Stand for Schools and Local Public Safety." California Labor Federation. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://www.calaborfed.org/index.php/site/page/yes_on_prop_30_take_a_stand_for_schools_and_public_safety>.

This article is an opinion editorial supporting Proposition 30. The authors’ start the article by explaining how years of cuts have drastically hurt California’s educational system. They strongly use ethos and logos by claiming that Prop 30 will give California a chance to come back through three solutions. First Prop 30 will prevent the $6 billion in cuts that schools face if it doesn’t pass. Instead, Prop 30 will do the opposite and provide billions of dollars to funding education. Second Prop 30 will require that public safety is a priority and is required in California’s state constitution. This would make it so funding cannot be cut without a vote. As a result there will be more police to keep our streets safe. Third it will help California pay its deficit and balance its budget.

                Then the authors use pathos and ethos by saying that prop 30 will demand that the rich pay their share. This brings up strong feelings of fairness by making the rich pay a little more taxes. They also state that tax rates will be lower to the average person other than a slight rise in sales tax. The types of supporters for the proposition are listed as well to further support their argument; they say that they have broad support from educators, law enforcement, Governor Brown, community groups, healthcare advocates, and the League of Women Voters of California.

                The article was most convincing because of its use of ethos. Two pages of the text was dedicated to explaining in further detail how Prop 30 works, who supports Prop 30, how revenue won’t be lost, how it prevents school cuts, explaining its role in public safety, and how it will balance the budget. I found this article interesting and convincing and definitely will personally be a supporter of Prop 30.

2.

"Unfiltered Political News. For You. By You." Independent Voter Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. <http://ivn.us/2012/09/10/proposition-30-wont-fix-california-budget-issues/>.

This article is an opinion editorial that opposes Proposition 30; it is significantly shorter than my previous article, and has fewer valid arguments to back up the author’s claims. The authors started the article by stating that California has a low credit rating, that California has had a $16 billion budget gap, and that Prop 30 will erase the deficit.

The article continued by stating facts about the spending cuts in California, such as funding in California has been decreasing since 2008, and that California is ranked 47^th in the country for Per-pupil spending. The article tries to claim that the reasons for these cuts are a result of systematic error that cannot be fixed by raising taxes. They continue the article by continually blaming spending cuts on the spending cuts and bad legislation.

The solution the article suggests is that California should remove term limits from the legislature in order to avoid further budget cuts. They end up stating that raising taxes makes sense, but that budgeting should be left to professionals and if we don’t like our legislators, we should simply remove them from office. Personally I think that the article contradicted itself and had a very weak argument.