Critical Reasoning

72. The reforms to improve the quality of public education that have been initiated on the part of suppliers of public education have been insufficient. Therefore, reforms must be demanded by consumers. Parents should be given government vouchers with which to pay for their children's education and should be allowed to choose the schools at which the vouchers will be spent. To attract students, academically underachieving schools will be forced to improve their academic offerings.

The argument assumes that

(A) in selecting schools parents would tend to prefer a reasonable level of academic quality to greater sports opportunities or more convenient location
(B) improvement in the academic offerings of schools will be enforced by the discipline of the job market in which graduating students compete.
(C) There is a single best way to educate students
(D) Children are able to recognize which schools are better and would influence their parents' decisions.
(E) Schools would each improve all of their academic offerings and would not tend to specialize in one particular field to the exclusion of others.

OA: A

What is problem with E?

More than an obvious answer here is A.

Choice E has simply a wrong focus. We need to find assumption behind the parents' decision, as the suppliers of education have failed the reform process. Our conclusion is - "Therefore, reforms must be demanded by consumers. Parents should be given ..." So we are looking for assumption behind the parents' decision to make sense for - "To attract students, academically underachieving schools will be forced to improve their academic offerings." Hence parents need to be either academically competent in their decision making and/or put strong accent on academic issues.

YellowSapphire wrote:72. The reforms to improve the quality of public education that have been initiated on the part of suppliers of public education have been insufficient. Therefore, reforms must be demanded by consumers. Parents should be given government vouchers with which to pay for their children's education and should be allowed to choose the schools at which the vouchers will be spent. To attract students, academically underachieving schools will be forced to improve their academic offerings.

The argument assumes that

(A) in selecting schools parents would tend to prefer a reasonable level of academic quality to greater sports opportunities or more convenient location
(B) improvement in the academic offerings of schools will be enforced by the discipline of the job market in which graduating students compete.
(C) There is a single best way to educate students
(D) Children are able to recognize which schools are better and would influence their parents' decisions.
(E) Schools would each improve all of their academic offerings and would not tend to specialize in one particular field to the exclusion of others.

What is problem with E?

IMO A .

I think answer A is out of scope becuase of "...gerater sports opp..."
IMO D.

A) acadamic > sport/convinence (demand is from customer => Parents)
B) Out of scope as Job market is never discussed
C) Extreme .. please kick it
D) Out of scope .. passage never said that children influenced the parents
E) How schools improve their acadamics is not the question

one more for A ..

Why Not E ?
If the school improves in 1 field only and neglect the other fields would that still be an improvement in academic education.
If the school has 3 subjects and the school decides to improve in 1 subject and neglect the others , the school would instead be degrading their academic offering.

mundasingh123 wrote:Why Not E ?
If the school improves in 1 field only and neglect the other fields would that still be an improvement in academic education.
If the school has 3 subjects and the school decides to improve in 1 subject and neglect the others , the school would instead be degrading their academic offering.

I feel option E is pretty specific .

AIM GMAT wrote:

mundasingh123 wrote:Why Not E ?
If the school improves in 1 field only and neglect the other fields would that still be an improvement in academic education.
If the school has 3 subjects and the school decides to improve in 1 subject and neglect the others , the school would instead be degrading their academic offering.

I feel option E is pretty specific .

What do u mean by specific ?

As rightly said by nightreader that option E has wrong focus , what school does as a course of action need not to be discussed , i mean how can we assume so specifically that school will follow such plan .

AIM GMAT wrote:As rightly said by nightreader that option E has wrong focus , what school does as a course of action need not to be discussed , i mean how can we assume so specifically that school will follow such plan .

But the Conclusion is actually related to what action the schools would take in reponse to the parents ' decision of choosing schools that promise better academic education.
The conclusion is that the schools would provide better academic education.
Correct me if i am wrong.