Christopher Columbus High School

Mr. Dalglish: daviddalglish@hotmail.com

Sarah Beaver rode the bubble at Cisco Systems, building her career as a Web producer in five years at the once-roaring maker of network routers. She managed to lift her salary to $60,000 a year and save enough cash for a down payment on a new condominium. She was closing on the condo last April when Cisco laid her off. "I panicked. The first person I called was my real estate agent." Beaver, 36, moved back in with her parents in Stanford, Calif.

While she was moving, a contract worker for Cisco, toiling 8,700 miles away in Bangalore, India, was busy buying his own house at age 25 — and a home for his parents, too. Now 29, Stawan Kadepurkar has put in six years with Infosys, working mostly on projects for Cisco — in Dallas, Portland, Ore., Hyannisport, Mass. and even at Cisco's base in San Jose, Calif. He could have bumped into Sarah Beaver in the hallways there. In that time his salary has risen fourfold, and it is up 15-fold since he took his first job out of college in 1995. Despite that surge and his role overseeing 25 workers on three Cisco projects, he earns all of $12,000 a year.

Beaver and Kadepurkar represent two sides of the most controversial and divisive issue in economics: offshoring. Offshoring allows American companies to save considerable amounts of money because of the comparatively low cost of foreign labor. Companies use these cost savings to increase profits, lower prices, and/or allocate funds to areas such as research and development.

In the last several years, offshoring has become common in the economy’s service sector and impacts both moderate- and high skilled jobs. Jobs in areas such as accounting, computer programming, customer service and information technology, now are being offshored to countries such as India, China, and the Philippines. This trend has caused considerable concern in the labor force because so many American jobs are being relocated overseas. BusinessWeek magazine projects that one out of every three private sector jobs is at risk of being offshored. Another concern is that many of these high-skilled jobs require college degrees. Higher education, training, and skill development no longer ensure job placement or retention for American workers.

You are the governor of a state that has a significant amount of its work force providing consumer and business services. Recently, a major corporation that supported you in your last political campaign announced that it was offshoring 700 computer-programming jobs to India, the Philippines, and China. You realize this trend of overseas outsourcing has resulted in your state losing more than 14,000 jobs in the past three years.

A delegation of state senators met with you this morning. Next week, they intend to introduce a bill that would prohibit businesses that offshore from receiving any state funding. Companies that offshore would not be allowed to bid on state contracts, would not be eligible for financial incentives to expand or locate in the state, and would not be able to send employees to free training and skills improvement programs offered by the state.

As a former CEO of a manufacturing firm, you are disturbed by the legislation. To lower product costs and remain in business, many parts required by your company were purchased from overseas businesses, rather than produced in your own factory. You understand that many companies looking to outsource overseas have global competitors with very low labor costs. On the other hand, you realize that continued offshoring of highly skilled jobs will be devastating to your state.

The senators plan to hold a press conference in several days to announce the introduction of their bill. The media will immediately ask for your reaction.

• You and your staff need to complete the PPA worksheets to develop a better understanding of the problem and to prepare a statement indicating your position on overseas outsourcing. If you believe that the economy is best served by allowing businesses to decide how and where to allocate their resources, without government intervention, you must convince voters of your position. Alternatively, you may want to introduce your own legislation with different measures to address overseas outsourcing.
• The following must be handed in to me by the end of the period
1. the 3 completed PPA worksheets (see process below)
2. A one page statement in response to the proposed legislation. (The statement must be typed using Microsoft Word)

Working in your assigned groups, complete the above task as set forth below

1. Appoint one person in your group to the role of governor. Other members of the group will serve as the governor’s advisor.

(a) One advisor should be the governor’s political advisor

(b) One advisor should be the governor’s economic advisor

(c) One advisor should be responsible for handling state contracts

You must employ the TIPS Public Policy Analyst process with respect to defining the problem, identifying the causes, and formulating a practical solution to the problem. The internet links below bring you directly to the required worksheets in order to subject the offshoring issue to the PPA process. The website resources below are designed to assist you in completing the PPA worksheets.

2. Define the Problem: Complete the worksheet @ http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet1.doc (define the problem with respect to the negative impact of offshoring on your state.)

3. Identify the Causes: Complete worksheet @ http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet3.doc (why are companies outsourcing jobs overseas)

4. Evaluate the Proposal: Complete worksheet @ http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/plegal/TIPS/worksheet4.doc (Use the worksheet to evaluate the current proposal under consideration

5. After completing the worksheets and considering all options with regard to the benefits and costs of offshoring, draft a statement in response to the legislation

(a) if your group agrees with the proposed legislation, the statement must defend it

(b) if your group disagrees with the legislation, draft an alternative policy with regard to offshoring.

http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/569739.cms (worksheets 1 & 2)

http://money.cnn.com/2004/01/09/pf/q_antioffshore/ (worksheet 1)

http://news.com.com/2009-1022-5198090.html (worksheet 1 & 2)

http://sacbee.com/content/politics/story/9871253p-10793505c.html (worksheet 3)

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1014707/posts (worksheet 2 & 3)

https://google.com/

http://yahoo.com

Excellent	Satisfactory	Minimal Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory
Organization Student presentation is logical, clear and fully captivates audience interest.	Organization Student presentation is logical, clear and somehow captivates audience interest	Organization Student presentation is logical and somehow clear but not captivating.	Organization Student presentation is illogical and distorted.
Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates full knowledge of subject matter and beyond	Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates knowledge of subject matter	Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates a little knowledge of subject matter subject matter	Subject Knowledge Student does not know subject matter
Accuracy No grammatical errors	Accuracy Very few grammatical errors	Accuracy Some grammatical errors	Accuracy Too many grammatical errors that distorts meaning of words

Excellent	Satisfactory	Minimal Satisfactory	Unsatisfactory
Organization Student presentation is logical, clear and fully captivates audience interest.	Organization Student presentation is logical, clear and somehow captivates audience interest	Organization Student presentation is logical and somehow clear but not captivating.	Organization Student presentation is illogical and distorted.
Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates full knowledge of subject matter and beyond	Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates knowledge of subject matter	Subject Knowledge Student demonstrates a little knowledge of subject matter subject matter	Subject Knowledge Student does not know subject matter
Accuracy No grammatical errors	Accuracy Very few grammatical errors	Accuracy Some grammatical errors	Accuracy Too many grammatical errors that distorts meaning of words

At the close of this assignment, you will have a greater understanding of the offshoring controversy. Accordingly, you will understand that offshoring is an issue that will continue to be hotly debated in public policy circles. Your next webquest will focus on ways globalization can benefit both developed and developing countries equally in order to promote economic prosperity on a global scale.

Social Studies

Standard 1:   History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Standard 2:   World History

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Standard 5:   Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the United States and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

English Language Arts

Standard 1:   Language for Information and Understanding

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for information and understanding. As listeners and readers, students will collect data, facts, and ideas; discover relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and use knowledge generated from oral, written, and electronically produced texts. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to acquire, interpret, apply, and transmit information.

Standard 2:   Language for Literary Response and Expression

Students will read and listen to oral, written, and electronically produced texts and performances from American and world literature; relate texts and performances to their own lives; and develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the texts and performances represent. As speakers and writers, students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for self-expression and artistic creation.

Standard 3:   Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for critical analysis and evaluation. As listeners and readers, students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others using a variety of established criteria. As speakers and writers, they will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language to present, from a variety of perspectives, their opinions and judgments on experiences, ideas, information and issues.

Standard 4:   Language for Social Interaction

Students will listen, speak, read, and write for social interaction. Students will use oral and written language that follows the accepted conventions of the English language for effective social communication with a wide variety of people. As readers and listeners, they will use the social communications of others to enrich their understanding of people and their views.