THW PRIORITIZE EDUCATION OVER
INFRASTRUCTURE
Mr. Gary
Hawaii Tennis Pro
Debate Made Simple
CASE BACKGROUND
This case centers around solving:
Poverty
Unemployment
Foreign Investments
CYCLE OF POVERTY
A farmer’s son becomes a farmer then his son becomes a farmer
 Poor people with limited resources and opportunity cannot go on to better lives
 Limited resources means they cannot afford to go to expensive schools or advance to university
 Opportunity means without job training cannot get better jobs to escape poverty
UNEMPLOYMENT
Even with education there is no guarantee that jobs will be there when they graduate.
The cycle of poverty cannot be broken unless there are better opportunities.
FOREIGN INVESTMENT
The argument for better infrastructure to attract foreign investment is made but
There are no guarantees that the foreigners will come
There are other issues in both negative and positive for foreigners
 Remember Corruption is mutually exclusive—meaning it will be on both sides of the case—as more
foreigners or less, there will be corruption
 Foreigners like transparency—things being out in the open and visible, but that may not happen in a
foreign country.
ORGANIC CHANGE
Teams will argue that nothing needs to be done drastically as things will change by
themselves.
 The counter is when and how long
 Things will stay the same unless something is done
 These things take a long time
EDUCATION
Improving schools is important, but the target has to be clearly defined. It’s normally
secondary to university level education.
Flaw is it takes time.
Second flaw will there be a job upon graduating
INFRASTRUCTURE
These are roads, buildings, piers, airports, railroads,
These are normally for transport, housing, business, or trade
This construction often provides massive jobs for labor as it takes many people. More
labor/more people equal more people needing food, housing, and entertainment so
money spent on infrastructure also returns to the economy
Flaw—these jobs are low paying and labor intensive, not breaking the cycle of
poverty
HARD CASE VS SOFT CASE
A hard case is where the money goes all in on the infrastructure or education.
Soft means you go 60/40
This case normally is best served soft.
The government develops education and infrastructure together—meaning private
companies train workers and improve their capabilities while building infrastructure—
thus you have jobs and education. Also, directly target foreign investment by using
foreign companies to build infrastructure
 Breaks cycle of poverty, creates jobs, and entices foreign development
MUST PRIORITIZE EDUCATION
The government team must focus on education so do both—improve the infrastructure
around and in schools thus you are in motion but you are also upgrading school
facilities.
This is where the motion topicality might come into play
If government emphasizes too much infrastructure, they fall on the opposition side.
GOVERNMENT CASE
Definition:
Infrastructure is buildings, transport, etc
Education is seconday/university
Harm:
Cycle of poverty
Unemployment
Lack of foreign investment
GOVERNMENT CASE MODEL
Go into universities and upgrade facilities and infrastructure at schools
Improve the teachers in the school through continued education and improve salaries
Using private companies to build infrastructure projects and provide
education/scholarships to workers to improve their abilities at school getting
GED/High school equivalency and/or university education
Promoting foreign investments by targeting foreign companies to build their
infrastructure
OPPOSITION
Reminder if the Gov goes hard, you go soft. If they go soft, going soft have to be
aware to create separation—push infrastructure line, jobs, and how long education
will take. The government case outlined in this ppt is unusual but you might have
something similar
Engage with the idea that jobs solve the problem and more money in the system
leads to upgrades in services through taxation
BUT stimulate the jobs with expenditures on infrastructure
OPPOSITION COUNTERMODEL
Increase infrastructure improvements specifically to improve foreign trade and
foreign investments
Improve education concurrently
PRIMARY OPPOSITION ARGUMENTS
Increased infrastructure is overall more desirable
 Economically—more money in the system, leads to more spending and an improved economy
 Politically allows countries to attract other countries to interact and trade with an influx of foreign
investment better human rights accords occur
 Vs education, it’s a faster result and a long term sustainable venture.