argumentative essay for school funding

Is School Funding Fair? A Roundtable Debate

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On both the state and national levels, controversies over school funding have loomed large in conversations about the future of K-12 education. In addition to several recent high-stakes showdowns between governors and legislatures over school funding and a rash of state-level lawsuits aimed at funding formulas , the debate over what the Every Student Succeeds Act says about the use of Title I funding aimed at disadvantaged students has raged since the law’s inception. With ESSA going into full effect this fall, school funding debates will undoubtedly garner even more attention. Meanwhile, stark disparities remain in how state funding formulas serve (or, in some cases, arguably underserve) their poorest districts.

What do all these conversations end up meaning for students? Is the United States on the right track in how the country approaches funding education? Five education policy experts and practitioners weigh in.

Public School Funding a National Disgrace

By David G. Sciarra

More than 60 years since Brown v. Board of Education, public school funding continues to be unfair and inequitable in most states, shortchanging the nation’s 50 million public school students.

Unlike in many other nations, public education in the United States is a state and local matter. State and local funding accounts for approximately 90 percent of all education funding in public schools. But unfair school funding remains entrenched in many states, impeding efforts to improve outcomes for students, especially poor children, English-language learners, and students with disabilities.

The deplorable condition of state public school finance is laid bare in the “National Report Card, Is School Funding Fair?” released early this year by my organization, the Education Law Center. The report analyzes both the level of funding for all students in each state and whether funding increases in districts with high enrollments of poor students.

Here are some key takeaways from the “National Report Card”:

• A wide gulf remains in how much states invest in public education, ranging from $18,165 per pupil in New York to a low of $5,838 in Idaho, when adjusted for regional differences. Most states also fail to allocate more funding to high-poverty districts.

• Twenty-one states, including Arizona, Illinois, and Virginia, have “regressive” school funding, which means they provide less funding to their high-need districts.

• Fifteen states, including California, Michigan, and South Carolina, have “flat” funding, failing to allocate additional funds to address the academic, social, and health needs of students in their poorest schools.

• Four other states, notably Colorado and Tennessee, do send modestly more funds to poor schools, but rank poorly in overall spending.

• Very few states, including Massachusetts, Minnesota, and New Jersey, have a school funding system that can be considered fair, with high funding overall and increased funding for student poverty.

• Nevada is the nation’s most unfair state, with low spending and less money for a burgeoning population of poor students and English-language learners.

The sad fact is that most states still fund schools according to how much states are willing to spend."

• Some states with unfair finance systems, such as Colorado, Florida, and Texas, have economies that can support greater investment, but the state legislatures are simply unwilling to do so.

This isn’t just about dollars. The level of funding determines whether effective teachers, Advanced Placement classes, guidance counselors, extra learning time, preschool programs, and other essential resources are available in the nation’s classrooms.

The sad fact is that most states still fund schools according to how much states are willing to spend, usually based on last year’s budget, and then distribute funding to satisfy the demands of powerful political constituencies. Only a handful have enacted finance reforms driven by the actual cost of basic education resources.

In many states, elected officials continue to resist school funding reform, even in the face of court orders, and governors in some states are fighting funding lawsuits rather than using the courts to leverage legislative action.

It is not an overstatement to say that unfair school funding is our biggest obstacle to advancing equal opportunity and improved outcomes, especially for vulnerable children. It’s time to put this issue at the top of the national education agenda.

David G. Sciarra is the executive director of the Education Law Center and a co-author of the “National Report Card.”

A Little Transparency Goes a Long Way. Maybe.

By Karen Hawley Miles & Jonathan Travers

In the deep, dark recesses of the Every Student Succeeds Act fine print rests a brief provision requiring districts and states to report per-pupil expenditures at the school level. While that might not seem like a big ask, most states and districts don’t do it now, and we know from years of working with districts, that it isn’t as easy as it sounds to do well.

Schools serving students with greater needs require more, and sometimes different, resources—people, time, and money—to reach the same high standards. To create financial transparency that informs smart resource-allocation decisions and also advances equity and excellence, states must take a deliberate approach to presenting informative and consistent data in context. This requires states to go beyond the numbers to highlight the drivers of difference. We see three key success factors for districts and states to make the most of ESSA’s new requirement:

1. Report school-level spending accurately.

Accurate reporting sounds simple enough, but many districts report only about half of all funds that go to the school level. Services that play out in schools, like custodial services or special education teachers or benefits for employees who work in schools, are often accounted for at the district level, in one big, lump sum. To provide an accurate picture that the public can compare across districts, states need to work with local education leaders to define a methodology that reflects what actually happens in schools.

2. Provide information to make sense of differences across schools.

Even with consistent, accurate per-pupil numbers, stakeholders need context to make sense of differences. Per-pupil spending varies widely across schools for both strategic and nonstrategic reasons. Interpreting these differences will require data on spending drivers such as concentration of student need, school size, and teacher experience.

3. Place school spending in the context of a broader equity and excellence strategy.

Equity and excellence aren’t just about how much schools spend, but about how well."

Equity and excellence aren’t just about how much schools spend but also about how well. Indeed, our experience working at Education Resource Strategies has shown that, above a certain baseline, there too often is little correlation between per-pupil spending and student success. To effectively address equity, district reporting must also include metrics that are strongly related to practices that help all students reach higher learning outcomes. What percentage of teachers in a school are highly effective, and how does that align with student needs? Are courses rigorous? Do students and staff feel safe and supported? By providing that context, families and other stakeholders will be able to better connect allocation of resources and student outcomes, and leaders can target action.

The clock is ticking. Designing methodology and reporting structures that provide per-pupil-spending information that is accurate, contextualized, and clearly communicated in place takes time. And the U.S. Department of Education is asking for this to be included in 2018-19 school report cards. Getting this wrong could lead to decisions that work against equity and excellence. Getting it right could provide valuable guidance to help ensure schools are organizing their people, time, and money so that every school succeeds for every student.

Karen Hawley Miles is the CEO of Education Resource Strategies, a nonprofit organization that works with large urban school systems to improve student learning. Jonathan Travers is a partner at ERS.

Poverty Creates Extra Challenges; It Demands Extra Resources

By Morgan Showalter

“They could have shot him in the leg,” one of my students exclaimed.

“Yeah, why’d they have to kill him?” another student responded.

We needed to address what was on everybody’s mind. The media had not identified him yet, but we knew he was one of ours. Everyone in the room knew him, this young man shot by the police while he was actively shooting somebody else. Trying to make sense of the situation, one of my students tied the event to the ideas of fate and karma, which we had been exploring through reading “Hamlet.” The lesson had begun, but tragically it had already started the night before.

This event from my school day shows us that an entire classroom can be immersed in the consequences of poverty, urban blight, and the lure of criminal activity. It shows us that the proximity of violence and death warrant additional resources in an educational environment, such as targeted health and psychological services.

Fortunately, in my home state, some of those solutions are already in place.

In our current educational funding model in Maryland, extra dollars are allocated to areas in greater need as identified by such factors as high concentrations of poverty and regional issues that would make it difficult to attract teachers. Additionally, jurisdictions lacking in local resources contribute proportionately less to their overall per-pupil expenditures while the state takes on the majority of the remainder.

The proximity of violence and death warrant additional resources in an educational environment."

The wisdom of this approach is reinforced by research from the National Center for Education and the Economy along with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in their support for targeted funding systems that provide more support to students that need it the most. As well, they suggest that the most talented teachers are assigned to those students. In the United States, we often do the opposite.

The example from my classroom illustrates problems that stem from poverty.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, the child-poverty rate in major American cities increased from 19.9 percent in 2013 to 30.6 percent in 2016. In Maryland, 45 percent of children qualified for free and reduced-price lunches in 2016. Yet, countries with comparative levels of poverty, such as Singapore and Canada, handily outperform our students. So what is the difference?

High-performing countries realize that there are correlations between academic success and providing supports that allow students to be prepared for school in early childhood, along with consistently and adequately providing for the health of all family members.

In the United State we must acknowledge the interconnectedness of the societal woes that plague our most challenged communities, including the decline of manufacturing jobs, food insecurity, drug abuse, historical housing segregation, and mental-health issues. In education, we must continue the targeting of funds for concentrations of poverty as well as for innovative models that deliver on the promise of a free and equitable education for all—such as community schools, whole-child education, and wraparound services.

There are too many stories like the one I shared. It is time we changed this narrative.

Morgan Showalter is a high school special education teacher in the Baltimore school district. He is the appointee of the Baltimore Teachers Union to the Maryland Commission on Excellence and Innovation in Education.

In Education, Follow the Money

By Mike Magee

In the Watergate movie “All the President’s Men,” the secret source Deep Throat whispers some now-legendary wisdom: “Follow the money.”

The line encapsulates an important fact: If you want to know the truth, you have to know where the money is going.

That’s especially true in education, where the hot-button issues of funding fairness are deeply connected to questions of justice and opportunity. Variations in wealth and tax bases—and choices by leaders—have profound consequences for school funding. Public systems are charged with ensuring fairness and opportunity, but it is not often clear which systems, schools, and classrooms are getting what. And too often, the most vulnerable students lose out.

The good news is that under the Every Student Succeeds Act, following the money is going to get a lot easier. The law puts us on a better track and brings greater transparency—a level of transparency that is going to create some hard but healthy conversations to advance school equity.

Some spending ‘inequities’ are actually deliberate and strategic."

The challenge is clear. Students living in poverty and students of color are less than half as likely to be proficient in 4th grade math as their peers. And yet, across the country, we seriously underfund the schools and teachers serving those very students.

On average, high-poverty districts get about $1,200 per student less than low-poverty districts each year, and districts with the most students of color get about $2,000 per student less than districts with the least. What’s more, within districts, the schools that need the most often get even less.

Yet even the people running these systems lack insight into those differences, because they themselves lack the tools to follow the money. The education leaders I work with are deeply passionate about serving all kids, and especially those who need the most support, but obsolete data and finance systems make spending patterns opaque.

Enter ESSA, which requires states and districts to report per-pupil expenditures down to the school level starting in the 2017-18 school year. This exciting change also brings anxiety and challenges because the shift requires expertise, money, and time.

At Chiefs for Change, we’ve set up a network where leading education chiefs can share ideas and offer models for the country. We believe financial transparency, beyond just compliance with the law, will provide fair and strong support of underserved kids.

Our research has found that higher spending does not necessarily mean better services for students. The school may be smaller, the needs of its student population may be greater, or it may have a broader grade configuration. Some spending “inequities” are actually deliberate and strategic. For example, smaller schools may be more expensive to operate, but having a greater number of them allows more kids to attend school in their neighborhood.

This isn’t about limiting options; it’s about understanding the trade-offs and making clear-eyed, equitable decisions.

Because equity isn’t the same as equality. All schools don’t get the same thing when you distribute dollars based on need. But when we make these decisions transparent, we ultimately have a better shot of making them according to shared values.

Forcing important conversations won’t make the decisions easy. But it will make them better.

Mike Magee is CEO of Chiefs for Change, a nonprofit that supports state and district education leaders.

A version of this article appeared in the August 23, 2017 edition of Education Week as Is School Funding Fair?

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• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

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Table of contents

When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

• Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
• Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
• Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
• Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
• Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
• Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

• Make a claim
• Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
• Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
• Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

• Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
• Cite data to support your claim
• Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
• Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

• Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
• Highlight the problems with this position
• Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
• Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

• Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
• Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
• Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
• Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

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9.3: The Argumentative Essay

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Learning Objectives

• Examine types of argumentative essays

Argumentative Essays

You may have heard it said that all writing is an argument of some kind. Even if you’re writing an informative essay, you still have the job of trying to convince your audience that the information is important. However, there are times you’ll be asked to write an essay that is specifically an argumentative piece.

An argumentative essay is one that makes a clear assertion or argument about some topic or issue. When you’re writing an argumentative essay, it’s important to remember that an academic argument is quite different from a regular, emotional argument. Note that sometimes students forget the academic aspect of an argumentative essay and write essays that are much too emotional for an academic audience. It’s important for you to choose a topic you feel passionately about (if you’re allowed to pick your topic), but you have to be sure you aren’t too emotionally attached to a topic. In an academic argument, you’ll have a lot more constraints you have to consider, and you’ll focus much more on logic and reasoning than emotions.

Argumentative essays are quite common in academic writing and are often an important part of writing in all disciplines. You may be asked to take a stand on a social issue in your introduction to writing course, but you could also be asked to take a stand on an issue related to health care in your nursing courses or make a case for solving a local environmental problem in your biology class. And, since argument is such a common essay assignment, it’s important to be aware of some basic elements of a good argumentative essay.

When your professor asks you to write an argumentative essay, you’ll often be given something specific to write about. For example, you may be asked to take a stand on an issue you have been discussing in class. Perhaps, in your education class, you would be asked to write about standardized testing in public schools. Or, in your literature class, you might be asked to argue the effects of protest literature on public policy in the United States.

However, there are times when you’ll be given a choice of topics. You might even be asked to write an argumentative essay on any topic related to your field of study or a topic you feel that is important personally.

Whatever the case, having some knowledge of some basic argumentative techniques or strategies will be helpful as you write. Below are some common types of arguments.

Causal Arguments

• In this type of argument, you argue that something has caused something else. For example, you might explore the causes of the decline of large mammals in the world’s ocean and make a case for your cause.

Evaluation Arguments

• In this type of argument, you make an argumentative evaluation of something as “good” or “bad,” but you need to establish the criteria for “good” or “bad.” For example, you might evaluate a children’s book for your education class, but you would need to establish clear criteria for your evaluation for your audience.

Proposal Arguments

• In this type of argument, you must propose a solution to a problem. First, you must establish a clear problem and then propose a specific solution to that problem. For example, you might argue for a proposal that would increase retention rates at your college.

Narrative Arguments

• In this type of argument, you make your case by telling a story with a clear point related to your argument. For example, you might write a narrative about your experiences with standardized testing in order to make a case for reform.

Rebuttal Arguments

• In a rebuttal argument, you build your case around refuting an idea or ideas that have come before. In other words, your starting point is to challenge the ideas of the past.

Definition Arguments

• In this type of argument, you use a definition as the starting point for making your case. For example, in a definition argument, you might argue that NCAA basketball players should be defined as professional players and, therefore, should be paid.

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Essay Examples

• Click here to read an argumentative essay on the consequences of fast fashion . Read it and look at the comments to recognize strategies and techniques the author uses to convey her ideas.
• In this example, you’ll see a sample argumentative paper from a psychology class submitted in APA format. Key parts of the argumentative structure have been noted for you in the sample.

Link to Learning

For more examples of types of argumentative essays, visit the Argumentative Purposes section of the Excelsior OWL .

Contributors and Attributions

• Argumentative Essay. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-styles/argumentative-essay/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Image of a man with a heart and a brain. Authored by : Mohamed Hassan. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/illustrations/decision-brain-heart-mind-4083469/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license

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General Education

Need to defend your opinion on an issue? Argumentative essays are one of the most popular types of essays you’ll write in school. They combine persuasive arguments with fact-based research, and, when done well, can be powerful tools for making someone agree with your point of view. If you’re struggling to write an argumentative essay or just want to learn more about them, seeing examples can be a big help.

After giving an overview of this type of essay, we provide three argumentative essay examples. After each essay, we explain in-depth how the essay was structured, what worked, and where the essay could be improved. We end with tips for making your own argumentative essay as strong as possible.

What Is an Argumentative Essay?

An argumentative essay is an essay that uses evidence and facts to support the claim it’s making. Its purpose is to persuade the reader to agree with the argument being made.

A good argumentative essay will use facts and evidence to support the argument, rather than just the author’s thoughts and opinions. For example, say you wanted to write an argumentative essay stating that Charleston, SC is a great destination for families. You couldn’t just say that it’s a great place because you took your family there and enjoyed it. For it to be an argumentative essay, you need to have facts and data to support your argument, such as the number of child-friendly attractions in Charleston, special deals you can get with kids, and surveys of people who visited Charleston as a family and enjoyed it. The first argument is based entirely on feelings, whereas the second is based on evidence that can be proven.

The standard five paragraph format is common, but not required, for argumentative essays. These essays typically follow one of two formats: the Toulmin model or the Rogerian model.

• The Toulmin model is the most common. It begins with an introduction, follows with a thesis/claim, and gives data and evidence to support that claim. This style of essay also includes rebuttals of counterarguments.
• The Rogerian model analyzes two sides of an argument and reaches a conclusion after weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each.

3 Good Argumentative Essay Examples + Analysis

Below are three examples of argumentative essays, written by yours truly in my school days, as well as analysis of what each did well and where it could be improved.

Argumentative Essay Example 1

Proponents of this idea state that it will save local cities and towns money because libraries are expensive to maintain. They also believe it will encourage more people to read because they won’t have to travel to a library to get a book; they can simply click on what they want to read and read it from wherever they are. They could also access more materials because libraries won’t have to buy physical copies of books; they can simply rent out as many digital copies as they need.

However, it would be a serious mistake to replace libraries with tablets. First, digital books and resources are associated with less learning and more problems than print resources. A study done on tablet vs book reading found that people read 20-30% slower on tablets, retain 20% less information, and understand 10% less of what they read compared to people who read the same information in print. Additionally, staring too long at a screen has been shown to cause numerous health problems, including blurred vision, dizziness, dry eyes, headaches, and eye strain, at much higher instances than reading print does. People who use tablets and mobile devices excessively also have a higher incidence of more serious health issues such as fibromyalgia, shoulder and back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and muscle strain. I know that whenever I read from my e-reader for too long, my eyes begin to feel tired and my neck hurts. We should not add to these problems by giving people, especially young people, more reasons to look at screens.

Second, it is incredibly narrow-minded to assume that the only service libraries offer is book lending. Libraries have a multitude of benefits, and many are only available if the library has a physical location. Some of these benefits include acting as a quiet study space, giving people a way to converse with their neighbors, holding classes on a variety of topics, providing jobs, answering patron questions, and keeping the community connected. One neighborhood found that, after a local library instituted community events such as play times for toddlers and parents, job fairs for teenagers, and meeting spaces for senior citizens, over a third of residents reported feeling more connected to their community. Similarly, a Pew survey conducted in 2015 found that nearly two-thirds of American adults feel that closing their local library would have a major impact on their community. People see libraries as a way to connect with others and get their questions answered, benefits tablets can’t offer nearly as well or as easily.

While replacing libraries with tablets may seem like a simple solution, it would encourage people to spend even more time looking at digital screens, despite the myriad issues surrounding them. It would also end access to many of the benefits of libraries that people have come to rely on. In many areas, libraries are such an important part of the community network that they could never be replaced by a simple object.

The author begins by giving an overview of the counter-argument, then the thesis appears as the first sentence in the third paragraph. The essay then spends the rest of the paper dismantling the counter argument and showing why readers should believe the other side.

What this essay does well:

• Although it’s a bit unusual to have the thesis appear fairly far into the essay, it works because, once the thesis is stated, the rest of the essay focuses on supporting it since the counter-argument has already been discussed earlier in the paper.
• This essay includes numerous facts and cites studies to support its case. By having specific data to rely on, the author’s argument is stronger and readers will be more inclined to agree with it.
• For every argument the other side makes, the author makes sure to refute it and follow up with why her opinion is the stronger one. In order to make a strong argument, it’s important to dismantle the other side, which this essay does this by making the author's view appear stronger.
• This is a shorter paper, and if it needed to be expanded to meet length requirements, it could include more examples and go more into depth with them, such as by explaining specific cases where people benefited from local libraries.
• Additionally, while the paper uses lots of data, the author also mentions their own experience with using tablets. This should be removed since argumentative essays focus on facts and data to support an argument, not the author’s own opinion or experiences. Replacing that with more data on health issues associated with screen time would strengthen the essay.
• Some of the points made aren't completely accurate , particularly the one about digital books being cheaper. It actually often costs a library more money to rent out numerous digital copies of a book compared to buying a single physical copy. Make sure in your own essay you thoroughly research each of the points and rebuttals you make, otherwise you'll look like you don't know the issue that well.

Argumentative Essay Example 2

There are multiple drugs available to treat malaria, and many of them work well and save lives, but malaria eradication programs that focus too much on them and not enough on prevention haven’t seen long-term success in Sub-Saharan Africa. A major program to combat malaria was WHO’s Global Malaria Eradication Programme. Started in 1955, it had a goal of eliminating malaria in Africa within the next ten years. Based upon previously successful programs in Brazil and the United States, the program focused mainly on vector control. This included widely distributing chloroquine and spraying large amounts of DDT. More than one billion dollars was spent trying to abolish malaria. However, the program suffered from many problems and in 1969, WHO was forced to admit that the program had not succeeded in eradicating malaria. The number of people in Sub-Saharan Africa who contracted malaria as well as the number of malaria deaths had actually increased over 10% during the time the program was active.

One of the major reasons for the failure of the project was that it set uniform strategies and policies. By failing to consider variations between governments, geography, and infrastructure, the program was not nearly as successful as it could have been. Sub-Saharan Africa has neither the money nor the infrastructure to support such an elaborate program, and it couldn’t be run the way it was meant to. Most African countries don't have the resources to send all their people to doctors and get shots, nor can they afford to clear wetlands or other malaria prone areas. The continent’s spending per person for eradicating malaria was just a quarter of what Brazil spent. Sub-Saharan Africa simply can’t rely on a plan that requires more money, infrastructure, and expertise than they have to spare.

Additionally, the widespread use of chloroquine has created drug resistant parasites which are now plaguing Sub-Saharan Africa. Because chloroquine was used widely but inconsistently, mosquitoes developed resistance, and chloroquine is now nearly completely ineffective in Sub-Saharan Africa, with over 95% of mosquitoes resistant to it. As a result, newer, more expensive drugs need to be used to prevent and treat malaria, which further drives up the cost of malaria treatment for a region that can ill afford it.

Instead of developing plans to treat malaria after the infection has incurred, programs should focus on preventing infection from occurring in the first place. Not only is this plan cheaper and more effective, reducing the number of people who contract malaria also reduces loss of work/school days which can further bring down the productivity of the region.

One of the cheapest and most effective ways of preventing malaria is to implement insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs).  These nets provide a protective barrier around the person or people using them. While untreated bed nets are still helpful, those treated with insecticides are much more useful because they stop mosquitoes from biting people through the nets, and they help reduce mosquito populations in a community, thus helping people who don’t even own bed nets.  Bed nets are also very effective because most mosquito bites occur while the person is sleeping, so bed nets would be able to drastically reduce the number of transmissions during the night. In fact, transmission of malaria can be reduced by as much as 90% in areas where the use of ITNs is widespread. Because money is so scarce in Sub-Saharan Africa, the low cost is a great benefit and a major reason why the program is so successful. Bed nets cost roughly 2 USD to make, last several years, and can protect two adults. Studies have shown that, for every 100-1000 more nets are being used, one less child dies of malaria. With an estimated 300 million people in Africa not being protected by mosquito nets, there’s the potential to save three million lives by spending just a few dollars per person.

Reducing the number of people who contract malaria would also reduce poverty levels in Africa significantly, thus improving other aspects of society like education levels and the economy. Vector control is more effective than treatment strategies because it means fewer people are getting sick. When fewer people get sick, the working population is stronger as a whole because people are not put out of work from malaria, nor are they caring for sick relatives. Malaria-afflicted families can typically only harvest 40% of the crops that healthy families can harvest. Additionally, a family with members who have malaria spends roughly a quarter of its income treatment, not including the loss of work they also must deal with due to the illness. It’s estimated that malaria costs Africa 12 billion USD in lost income every year. A strong working population creates a stronger economy, which Sub-Saharan Africa is in desperate need of.  

This essay begins with an introduction, which ends with the thesis (that malaria eradication plans in Sub-Saharan Africa should focus on prevention rather than treatment). The first part of the essay lays out why the counter argument (treatment rather than prevention) is not as effective, and the second part of the essay focuses on why prevention of malaria is the better path to take.

• The thesis appears early, is stated clearly, and is supported throughout the rest of the essay. This makes the argument clear for readers to understand and follow throughout the essay.
• There’s lots of solid research in this essay, including specific programs that were conducted and how successful they were, as well as specific data mentioned throughout. This evidence helps strengthen the author’s argument.
• The author makes a case for using expanding bed net use over waiting until malaria occurs and beginning treatment, but not much of a plan is given for how the bed nets would be distributed or how to ensure they’re being used properly. By going more into detail of what she believes should be done, the author would be making a stronger argument.
• The introduction of the essay does a good job of laying out the seriousness of the problem, but the conclusion is short and abrupt. Expanding it into its own paragraph would give the author a final way to convince readers of her side of the argument.

Argumentative Essay Example 3

There are many ways payments could work. They could be in the form of a free-market approach, where athletes are able to earn whatever the market is willing to pay them, it could be a set amount of money per athlete, or student athletes could earn income from endorsements, autographs, and control of their likeness, similar to the way top Olympians earn money.

Proponents of the idea believe that, because college athletes are the ones who are training, participating in games, and bringing in audiences, they should receive some sort of compensation for their work. If there were no college athletes, the NCAA wouldn’t exist, college coaches wouldn’t receive there (sometimes very high) salaries, and brands like Nike couldn’t profit from college sports. In fact, the NCAA brings in roughly $1 billion in revenue a year, but college athletes don’t receive any of that money in the form of a paycheck. Additionally, people who believe college athletes should be paid state that paying college athletes will actually encourage them to remain in college longer and not turn pro as quickly, either by giving them a way to begin earning money in college or requiring them to sign a contract stating they’ll stay at the university for a certain number of years while making an agreed-upon salary.  

Supporters of this idea point to Zion Williamson, the Duke basketball superstar, who, during his freshman year, sustained a serious knee injury. Many argued that, even if he enjoyed playing for Duke, it wasn’t worth risking another injury and ending his professional career before it even began for a program that wasn’t paying him. Williamson seems to have agreed with them and declared his eligibility for the NCAA draft later that year. If he was being paid, he may have stayed at Duke longer. In fact, roughly a third of student athletes surveyed stated that receiving a salary while in college would make them “strongly consider” remaining collegiate athletes longer before turning pro.

Paying athletes could also stop the recruitment scandals that have plagued the NCAA. In 2018, the NCAA stripped the University of Louisville's men's basketball team of its 2013 national championship title because it was discovered coaches were using sex workers to entice recruits to join the team. There have been dozens of other recruitment scandals where college athletes and recruits have been bribed with anything from having their grades changed, to getting free cars, to being straight out bribed. By paying college athletes and putting their salaries out in the open, the NCAA could end the illegal and underhanded ways some schools and coaches try to entice athletes to join.

People who argue against the idea of paying college athletes believe the practice could be disastrous for college sports. By paying athletes, they argue, they’d turn college sports into a bidding war, where only the richest schools could afford top athletes, and the majority of schools would be shut out from developing a talented team (though some argue this already happens because the best players often go to the most established college sports programs, who typically pay their coaches millions of dollars per year). It could also ruin the tight camaraderie of many college teams if players become jealous that certain teammates are making more money than they are.

They also argue that paying college athletes actually means only a small fraction would make significant money. Out of the 350 Division I athletic departments, fewer than a dozen earn any money. Nearly all the money the NCAA makes comes from men’s football and basketball, so paying college athletes would make a small group of men--who likely will be signed to pro teams and begin making millions immediately out of college--rich at the expense of other players.

Those against paying college athletes also believe that the athletes are receiving enough benefits already. The top athletes already receive scholarships that are worth tens of thousands per year, they receive free food/housing/textbooks, have access to top medical care if they are injured, receive top coaching, get travel perks and free gear, and can use their time in college as a way to capture the attention of professional recruiters. No other college students receive anywhere near as much from their schools.

People on this side also point out that, while the NCAA brings in a massive amount of money each year, it is still a non-profit organization. How? Because over 95% of those profits are redistributed to its members’ institutions in the form of scholarships, grants, conferences, support for Division II and Division III teams, and educational programs. Taking away a significant part of that revenue would hurt smaller programs that rely on that money to keep running.

While both sides have good points, it’s clear that the negatives of paying college athletes far outweigh the positives. College athletes spend a significant amount of time and energy playing for their school, but they are compensated for it by the scholarships and perks they receive. Adding a salary to that would result in a college athletic system where only a small handful of athletes (those likely to become millionaires in the professional leagues) are paid by a handful of schools who enter bidding wars to recruit them, while the majority of student athletics and college athletic programs suffer or even shut down for lack of money. Continuing to offer the current level of benefits to student athletes makes it possible for as many people to benefit from and enjoy college sports as possible.

This argumentative essay follows the Rogerian model. It discusses each side, first laying out multiple reasons people believe student athletes should be paid, then discussing reasons why the athletes shouldn’t be paid. It ends by stating that college athletes shouldn’t be paid by arguing that paying them would destroy college athletics programs and cause them to have many of the issues professional sports leagues have.

• Both sides of the argument are well developed, with multiple reasons why people agree with each side. It allows readers to get a full view of the argument and its nuances.
• Certain statements on both sides are directly rebuffed in order to show where the strengths and weaknesses of each side lie and give a more complete and sophisticated look at the argument.
• Using the Rogerian model can be tricky because oftentimes you don’t explicitly state your argument until the end of the paper. Here, the thesis doesn’t appear until the first sentence of the final paragraph. That doesn’t give readers a lot of time to be convinced that your argument is the right one, compared to a paper where the thesis is stated in the beginning and then supported throughout the paper. This paper could be strengthened if the final paragraph was expanded to more fully explain why the author supports the view, or if the paper had made it clearer that paying athletes was the weaker argument throughout.

3 Tips for Writing a Good Argumentative Essay

Now that you’ve seen examples of what good argumentative essay samples look like, follow these three tips when crafting your own essay.

#1: Make Your Thesis Crystal Clear

The thesis is the key to your argumentative essay; if it isn’t clear or readers can’t find it easily, your entire essay will be weak as a result. Always make sure that your thesis statement is easy to find. The typical spot for it is the final sentence of the introduction paragraph, but if it doesn’t fit in that spot for your essay, try to at least put it as the first or last sentence of a different paragraph so it stands out more.

Also make sure that your thesis makes clear what side of the argument you’re on. After you’ve written it, it’s a great idea to show your thesis to a couple different people--classmates are great for this. Just by reading your thesis they should be able to understand what point you’ll be trying to make with the rest of your essay.

#2: Show Why the Other Side Is Weak

When writing your essay, you may be tempted to ignore the other side of the argument and just focus on your side, but don’t do this. The best argumentative essays really tear apart the other side to show why readers shouldn’t believe it. Before you begin writing your essay, research what the other side believes, and what their strongest points are. Then, in your essay, be sure to mention each of these and use evidence to explain why they’re incorrect/weak arguments. That’ll make your essay much more effective than if you only focused on your side of the argument.

#3: Use Evidence to Support Your Side

Remember, an essay can’t be an argumentative essay if it doesn’t support its argument with evidence. For every point you make, make sure you have facts to back it up. Some examples are previous studies done on the topic, surveys of large groups of people, data points, etc. There should be lots of numbers in your argumentative essay that support your side of the argument. This will make your essay much stronger compared to only relying on your own opinions to support your argument.

Summary: Argumentative Essay Sample

Argumentative essays are persuasive essays that use facts and evidence to support their side of the argument. Most argumentative essays follow either the Toulmin model or the Rogerian model. By reading good argumentative essay examples, you can learn how to develop your essay and provide enough support to make readers agree with your opinion. When writing your essay, remember to always make your thesis clear, show where the other side is weak, and back up your opinion with data and evidence.

What's Next?

Do you need to write an argumentative essay as well? Check out our guide on the best argumentative essay topics for ideas!

You'll probably also need to write research papers for school. We've got you covered with 113 potential topics for research papers.

Your college admissions essay may end up being one of the most important essays you write. Follow our step-by-step guide on writing a personal statement to have an essay that'll impress colleges.

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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Why the US government should increase funding for public schools

Democratic presidential candidates are proposing bold new approaches to the federal government’s role in public education. Former Vice President Joe Biden , Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Cory Booker want to triple the US$15 billion spent annually on Title I , a programme that sends federal dollars to high-poverty school districts.

Senator Elizabeth Warren wants to go further and quadruple funding for that same programme . She also wants to make quality child care and preschool affordable or free for all American families with kids, along with free breakfast and lunch for all public school students.

Other candidates have similar proposals to substantially increase funding for public education, including former Housing Secretary Julian Castro , Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Mayor Pete Buttigieg .

Funding increases of this scale would transform the federal role in education policy , making it easier for school districts to pay teachers higher wages while reducing class sizes . This focus on funding would mark a departure from previous administrations, which instead emphasised policies intended to increase accountability and strengthen teacher evaluation .

As a scholar of school finance , I study the role of resources in schools. The research is clear that spending more on students over the long haul would bring about long-term benefits .

Only 8 percent

The federal government spends a total of about US$55 billion per year on K-12 education, in addition to outlays for early childhood and post-secondary programmes like loans and grants for college tuition . This amounts to around US$1,000 per K-12 student and just eight percent of the total US$700 billion it costs to run the nation’s public schools, which are mostly funded by state and local tax dollars.

Federal funding has never surpassed 10 percent  of total public school funding, except from 2010 to 2012 when the federal government sought to reduce the school spending cuts brought about during the Great Recession .

The federal government has historically exerted influence in non-monetary ways. For example, under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, President George W Bush’s administration relied on standardised tests to hold schools accountable for student achievement. Schools that failed to make yearly progress on test scores faced serious repercussions , such as replacing the school staff or reopening the school as a charter school.

President Barack Obama’s Education Department used Race to the Top – under which states competed for federal grants through a point system – and other initiatives to get states to adopt a specific set of policies regarding teacher hiring, promotion and dismissal that the Education Department said would help schools employ better teachers overall.

Obama also signed the Every Student Succeeds Act into law in 2015 . It scaled back many of these policies and returned authority over accountability back to individual states .

These initiatives have two things in common. All of them have been longer on mandates than money, and it’s unclear that any have worked. Some major studies failed to find substantial impacts and educators have largely opposed using student test scores to drive high-stakes staffing decisions.

Graphic concerns

One source of opposition to increasing spending on public schools is a now – infamous graph that traces the rise of this spending on a per-student basis over the past 40 years, while test scores have remained stagnant. The juxtaposition of these two trend lines, opponents of higher spending say, suggests that more funding is not the answer.

Versions of this chart often appear in libertarian , conservative and mainstream outlets.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tweeted a version of the graph and later declared that the “gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students is widening, despite US$1 trillion in federal spending over 40 years.”

I find DeVos’ statement and the graph she was talking about misleading.

A fave chart used by @billgates & others ideologically biased vs school spending. https://t.co/VX7tIpen2B pic.twitter.com/Is6v0BSlCj — leonie haimson (@leoniehaimson) August 6, 2019

More spending on rich kids

The significant increase in Title I funding Warren, Sanders, Biden and other candidates propose could partly address a problem that all the leading Democratic presidential candidates agree requires urgent action: substantial funding inequities in public schools.

Despite a widespread stated commitment to equity , many states actually spend less in high-poverty school districts than in more affluent communities.

In addition, students of colour attend schools that receive, on average, US$2,200 less per student from state coffers compared with the schools predominantly enrolling white students.

Of course, finding a way to pay for these spending increases through new tax dollars or cuts to other priorities would be a challenge. But there is probably no way to address the challenges facing the nation’s public schools that doesn’t involve significant increases in funding, targeted to places where most students are growing up in poverty .

By David Knight , Assistant Professor of Education Finance and Policy, University of Washington

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

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Back From Ukraine, a House Republican Makes the Case for More Aid

Representative Chuck Edwards, a first-term North Carolinian, has emerged as a vocal proponent for U.S. aid to Ukraine in a party that has grown hostile to it. He recently saw the war up close.

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By Catie Edmondson

Reporting from Capitol Hill

Knowing a vote on another aid package for Ukraine loomed in his future, Representative Chuck Edwards, a freshman Republican, spent part of last week traveling across the country to see for himself how American dollars would be used in the nation’s fight to fend off Russian invaders.

What he witnessed as he and a bipartisan group of lawmakers traveled across Ukraine over four days — a dozen air raids, an onslaught of drone attacks, and the sites of gruesome atrocities against civilians — left Mr. Edwards and his colleagues vowing to press Speaker Mike Johnson to push forward on a measure to provide more aid for the war effort.

They told President Volodymyr Zelensky that their visit had given them a “new appreciation" of what his country was facing, Mr. Edwards said, and that they would lobby Mr. Johnson to make sure that American aid did not dry up.

The trip came at a critical time for Ukraine aid on Capitol Hill, as Mr. Johnson searches for a path to advance a fresh funding package for the embattled nation amid vehement opposition from his right flank. The fate of the effort rests in part on mainstream Republicans like Mr. Edwards, who has previously voted in favor of aid to Ukraine, who are willing to join Democrats in lending their support to the cause.

In an interview with The New York Times, Mr. Edwards, who last month easily fended off a primary challenge to his right from a candidate who opposed U.S. aid to Ukraine, discussed the urgency of backing the war effort there, what he saw during his trip , and the difficult politics of the issue.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

Why did you decide to go to Ukraine?

The news is really falling off in America on what’s taking place in Ukraine. It’s taken a back seat to so many other things, other issues that are important here in the country. And knowing that Ukraine is running up against a deadline, I thought that it was important for me to go over and participate in a fact-finding mission and get a better firsthand account of actually what’s taking place over there, as we approach the critical and important decision in whether or not — or how — the U.S. should assist in Ukraine.

What were your major takeaways?

At the highest level, the conclusion that I came up with is that Ukraine is either going to continue to be a democracy or it will fall to the hands of a Marxist, socialist, murderous dictatorship. And it cannot — it will not — remain a democracy if the United States doesn’t intervene.

Ukraine has a good base of strong men and women that are willing to step up and defend their country. They don’t have the resources to do it. President Zelensky told me of a number of brigades — I won’t quote the number, but a number of brigades — that have men but no equipment. They’re taking 10 Russian shells to every one that they can return. And if they don’t receive equipment and ammunition soon, their democracy will crumble.

The stories of the inhumaneness that’s taken place over there — it’s very brutal and horrendous. And the United States has always stood for freedom and liberty and justice. And it would be a travesty for us to take a back seat and allow that to happen. What I think that I see taking place in Ukraine right now is very much what took place prior to World War II.

Was there a specific story that really stood out to you?

In the village of Bucha, 136 elderly people, women and children were crammed into a very small basement of a school. It was dark, dank, moldy, musty, nasty. And they were forced to live there for 27 days. People were dying. They were piling bodies in the corner.

I had the opportunity to stand in that corner and visualize dead, decaying bodies. And one story that stuck out in particular was where a woman said there was a 7-year-old child in that basement that was clearly dying. He was about to be among the deceased. He was sick. He was feverish. He was suffocating. He was panicking. The prisoners in that basement went upstairs pounding on the door and gotten the attention of the Russian soldiers and the one that came to the door’s reply was: “Let him die. This is war.”

I think that that statement alone illustrates the cruelty of what’s taking place now and why Putin must be stopped. And he’s made it clear he’s not going to stop at Ukraine.

His intent is very clear, and the world’s watching. Our enemies are watching. They’ve watched the horrendous withdrawal from Afghanistan. They watched the Biden White House sit on its heels and allow this invasion of Ukraine to take place. China is certainly watching to see how we will respond. North Korea is watching. America has the opportunity right now to show that we still are a superpower. That we’re not going to allow bullies to pick on those folks in the world that cannot defend themselves.

There have been questions as to whether Speaker Johnson was even going to allow Ukraine aid to receive a vote in the House. Did you have a message to President Zelensky about what the House was likely to do?

I can’t speak for the House in general. But the message to President Zelensky from the six members of the congressional delegation that went over there is, that we had gained a new appreciation of the duress that the country is under, and that we would be returning to the United States and trying to convince Speaker Johnson and others to move forward and support Ukraine.

I am curious what you hear from your constituents at home about this and how you have this conversation with them. Your primary challenger was against sending aid to Ukraine — and you stood up and made the argument for it.

I’ve polled the people in my district. And they’re in favor, three-to-one, of helping Ukraine. The few that are against, I don’t believe are totally opposed to helping, but they insist that we need to pay as much attention to what’s going on right here in America. We need to secure our own border; that we need to pay attention to the debt load that we have in America right now.

So I don’t believe they’re adamantly opposed. They’re just insistent that we also deal with our own problems — and they’re right. I believe that we can still continue to do both. Joe Biden absolutely needs to reverse the 64 executive actions that he has taken that relaxed and helped open our border. That can be dealt with as a separate issue.

I believe that there’s a way that we can responsibly help Ukraine. There’s Russian assets that can be seized. One of the key takeaways that I had after leaving Ukraine and meeting with the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is that U.S. sanctions against Russia and world sanctions against Russia are not working. Any war is fought on many fronts. Choking off Putin’s profits — oil profits, banking profits — would be another front where we could fight this war.

Your argument for why the U.S. should continue to send aid to Ukraine strikes me as a very traditional G.O.P. argument, but it’s not the prevailing view in your party right now. Do you feel you’re in the minority on this issue?

I believe most of the conference, and most of Congress will side with my argument. I believe that America is capable of walking and chewing gum.

We’re to the point now where we have to do that, because the situation in Ukraine has become so dire. We don’t have the luxury of waiting until we fix all of our problems. We’re going to have to work on them simultaneously.

Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times. More about Catie Edmondson

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

News and Analysis

The top American military commander in Europe warned that Ukraine could lose the war with Russia  if the United States did not send more ammunition to Ukrainian forces, and fast.

Ukrainian lawmakers passed a mobilization law aimed at replenishing the nation’s exhausted and depleted fighting forces .

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, met in Beijing . The visit came days after the United States threatened new sanctions against Chinese companies if they aided Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Hollowing Out a Generation:  Ukraine desperately needs new recruits, but it is running up against a critical demographic constraint long in the making: It has very few young men .

Conditional Support: Ukraine wants a formal invitation to join NATO, but the alliance has no appetite for taking on a new member  that would draw it into the biggest land war in Europe since 1945.

‘Shell Hunger’: A desperate shortage of munitions in Ukraine  is warping tactics and the types of weapons employed, and what few munitions remain are often mismatched with battlefield needs.

How We Verify Our Reporting

Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs , videos and radio transmissions  to independently confirm troop movements and other details.

We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts .