Proposal

The topic of this paper is to inform the reader on why they should support Proposition 30 (Prop 30) and how it will affect them. Community Colleges and other public education institutions have been facing severe cuts over the past few years. Prop 30 was released as a new way to deal with this issue by instituting temporary tax increases to the wealthy and increased sales tax. The authors motivation to write about Prop 30 stems from their own personal experience in the community college system and the importance and significance they understand that Prop 30 has. The audience for this piece are California voters. More specifically California voters that are thinking of voting against Prop 30 or are undecided. It is also for California citizens who usually don't vote but to persuade them to because of the significance of this proposition. The purpose of this article is to convince the reader to vote for Prop 30 in November. The claim that the author makes is that California schools desperately need funding and that this proposition will ensure that without costing the average citizen that much extra in taxes.

The author of this article provides three types of evidence. The first are some statistics regarding Prop 30. They lay out the current situation we are in in our education institutions. Then they discuss how the proposition will affect our schools in a positive way if it passes by freeing up 5.6 billion dollars towards public safety and higher education. Then they lay out the reality if it fails and how it will create even larger cuts than were previously done over the past decade in the next couple of years.

The second type of evidence appealed to the readers understanding of the credibility of the author. The author talked about how they are a current student at a community college and the experiences regarding cuts that they have seen and personally experienced.

The third type of evidence appealed to the readers emotions. The author provided personal stories about trying to enroll in classes but they were already full and having to wait for a course the next semester, or classes that are now only being offered every fall or spring only once every two years that prevented them from taking them at all while at their community college. The author also provides a situation for the reader that they might find themselves in if it passes. They describe a situation where you would be out to lunch and getting a burrito at a local taqueria. If the burrito cost $5 then you would have to pay $5.38 instead of $5.37. This allows the reader to see how it would affect them in a normal situation and makes the numbers relatable to them. This makes them realize that it would not really affect them that much on a day to day basis. Then the author relates this back to how much it would help an individual student trying to go through the public college system and how they wouldn't have to pay increased tuition fees and would make college more accesible for low income students and while also not cutting back on their options for majors.

The argument of the author is convincing by providing facts and personal stories and situations to back up their claim.