I am pleased to announce that The White Book 3 has been published! It is now available for you to purchase through Google Checkout for $28. And since we're selling it in digital form this year, there's no shipping cost added to that!
If you're interested in viewing sample material from The White Book 3, check out our sample materials page here.
For more details about The White Book 3, click here to view our product details page.
For details on purchasing The White Book 3, click here to view our purchase page.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Monday, August 3, 2009
White Book Almost Completed
All of our writers have finished their writing assignments for this year's White Book and we are now working on compiling it. Our website will be updated shortly with purchasing information, a sample case, sample table of contents, and product details.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Competitive Private Education and the Poor
A great area for analysis under this resolution will occur in the education sector. Should schools be allowed to compete for profit in a privatized system or should parents, teachers, and students cooperate according to government standards in public schools?
One of the rather popular arguments against the competitive private education model is that the poor will suffer because eduation will become too unaffordable. The reasoning for this usually goes something like this: if the schools try to operate on a "for-profit" basis, their prices will be simply to high for the poor to afford to educate their children. Therefore, public schools are better because they provide "free" education for the poor. (Remember, "free" always means funded by taxpayer money or inflationary printing.)
However, fairly recent (but not commonly known) research by James Tooley refutes this argument rather solidly, giving us an argument for the competitive private education model. Tooley has conducted research in very poor regions of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, China, and India. In each of these countries, he found that the private, "for-profit" education schools boasted students who always scored significantly higher than students from the government schools. Additionally, the parents who sent their kids to these private schools far preferred the quality of education that was provided compared to the public schools. Moreover, almost all of these parents were very materially poor. Yet, these schools, based on a competitive, market based economic model, were by far more superior to the public schools in these countries.
So, if one uses Tooley's research, it seems that an argument in favor of a competitive private education model might be a decent one for the affirmative.
To read the full article about Tooley's research, click here.
One of the rather popular arguments against the competitive private education model is that the poor will suffer because eduation will become too unaffordable. The reasoning for this usually goes something like this: if the schools try to operate on a "for-profit" basis, their prices will be simply to high for the poor to afford to educate their children. Therefore, public schools are better because they provide "free" education for the poor. (Remember, "free" always means funded by taxpayer money or inflationary printing.)
However, fairly recent (but not commonly known) research by James Tooley refutes this argument rather solidly, giving us an argument for the competitive private education model. Tooley has conducted research in very poor regions of Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, China, and India. In each of these countries, he found that the private, "for-profit" education schools boasted students who always scored significantly higher than students from the government schools. Additionally, the parents who sent their kids to these private schools far preferred the quality of education that was provided compared to the public schools. Moreover, almost all of these parents were very materially poor. Yet, these schools, based on a competitive, market based economic model, were by far more superior to the public schools in these countries.
So, if one uses Tooley's research, it seems that an argument in favor of a competitive private education model might be a decent one for the affirmative.
To read the full article about Tooley's research, click here.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
More authors!
We're excited to announce that Matthew Silver and Cari Peacock, both nationally ranked LD debaters from this past national championship, have joined the White Book team as contributing authors!
Together, they bring 8 years of combined forensics experience and 4 national championship appearances in Lincoln Douglas debate. Most recently, Cari was 8th place LD debater at the 2009 NCFCA national championship wile Matthew was 14th place LD debater and 13th place LD speaker.
To read their complete bios, view our updated authors page.
Together, they bring 8 years of combined forensics experience and 4 national championship appearances in Lincoln Douglas debate. Most recently, Cari was 8th place LD debater at the 2009 NCFCA national championship wile Matthew was 14th place LD debater and 13th place LD speaker.
To read their complete bios, view our updated authors page.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Cooperation and Free Markets
While researching the relationship between this resolution and economics, I stumbled across a very well written article by Jeff Tucker at the Ludwig von Mises Institute. His premise is about how free markets engender cooperation. It's very interesting, since most people automatically assume that competition is at the heart of free market economics. Definitely a worthwhile twist to check into.
"Cooperation: How a Free Market Benefits Everyone"
If you're having trouble grasping the concepts that Tucker explains here (comparative advantage, division of labor, etc.), check out Leonard Read's brilliant essay, "I, Pencil." It advocates the exact same ideas that Tucker advocates, but from a rather interesting perspective. ;)
"Cooperation: How a Free Market Benefits Everyone"
If you're having trouble grasping the concepts that Tucker explains here (comparative advantage, division of labor, etc.), check out Leonard Read's brilliant essay, "I, Pencil." It advocates the exact same ideas that Tucker advocates, but from a rather interesting perspective. ;)
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sesame Street on Cooperation
In researching the new resolution yesterday, I googled "cooperation," and found this on page 5 of the results. If only there was a Sesame Street skit for competition...then we'd have both sides of the debate. ;)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
New Website Look
Yesterday, the finishing touches to the our website were completed. The new site now looks more sleek and professional compared to the basic blue outline that we had for the old one.
Check it out!
Check it out!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
White Book Blog Up and Running
To keep you updated on the White Book as we work on it this summer, we've started this blog. There's going to be some exciting developments in the next few days, including a rejuvinated web site look for the old White Book site. Right now, it has a pretty basic layout, but that should change in a few days.
So what does everyone think of the new resolution? Personally, I (Jason) was pulling for B, but we've been assigned a different resolution for this upcoming season, so the task now is to figure out how to make it work. We'll definitely have some thoughts for you on that when we publish the White Book! :)
So what does everyone think of the new resolution? Personally, I (Jason) was pulling for B, but we've been assigned a different resolution for this upcoming season, so the task now is to figure out how to make it work. We'll definitely have some thoughts for you on that when we publish the White Book! :)
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