Vargonia has just introduced a legal requirement that student-teacher ratios in government-funded schools not exceed a certain limit. All Vargonian children are entitled to education, free of charge, in these schools When a recession occurs and average incomes fall, the number of children enrolled in government-funded schools tends to increase. Therefore, though most employment opportunities contract in economic recessions, getting a teaching job in Vargonia's government-funded schools will not be made more difficult by a recession.
Which of the following would be most important to in order to evaluate the argument?
124. Vargonia has just introduced a legal requirement that student-teacher ratios in government-funded schools not exceed a certain limit. All Vargonian children are entitled to education, free of charge, in these schools. When a recession occurs and average incomes fall, the numberof children enrolled in government-funded schools tends to increase. Therefore, though most employment opportunities contract in economic recessions, getting a teaching job in Vargonia's government-funded schools will not be made more difficult by a recession. Which of the following would be most important to determine in order to evaluate the argument? (A) Whether in Vargonia there are any schools not funded by the government that offer children an education free of charge (B) Whether the number of qualified applicants for teaching positions in government-funded schools increases significantly during economic recessions (C) What the current student-teacher ratio in Vargonia's government-funded schools is (D) What proportion of Vargonia's workers currently hold jobs as teachers in government-funded schools (E) Whether in the past a number of government-funded schools in Vargonia have had student-teacher ratios well in excess of the new limit
student-teacher ratio measures the number of students per teacher, the higher the ratio, the more students given a fixed number of teachers. during recessions, a higher enrollment increases the ratio. the new law sets an upper limit, meaning that there MUST be more teachers when the number of students increase.
1, government-funded schools are free of charge and therefore, are faced with a growing enrollment during a recession due to a drop of average incomes. (explicit) 2, government-funded schools are required to hire more teachers in accordance with the new law that sets an upper limit on the s-t ratio. (implicit) 3, conclusion: recessions do not make teaching jobs in government-funded schools harder to get (given that most employment opportunities contract.)
A: not significan, government-funded schools WILL always have an influx of new students as long as schools that are not free during recession exist. B: correct since teaching jobs may be the center of fierce competition during recessions which directly contradicts the conclusion. C: of no value, no matter what the present ratio is, the reasoning is not affected by the current ratio. if the ratio is far below the required limit, meaning that there are much more teachers than students, we can not predict whether a recession will bring in so many students that the ratio may even exceed the limit, which stimulates schools to hire more teachers. D: the proportion does not provide any information to determine whether getting teaching jobs will be harder in times of recessions. E: like C, the past or current ratio does not affect the argument which focus on the future recession.