An administrative decree requiring schools in rural areas to offer students leave of absence to help share their family’s burden of intensive farming work will harm the educational competitiveness of our nation’s rural students. Schools must be free to set their own leave & vacation policies without mandated leave of absence regulations. Which of the following, if true, would most seriously weaken the conclusion of the argument above?

The leave of absence decree will serve to strengthen the family as a social institution in this country.

Many rural schools in this country already offer students some form of leave of absence.

Some of the countries with the most educationally competitive students have strong leave of absence regulations.

Only rural schools with one hundred or more students would be subject to the proposed leave of absence decree.

In most surveys, a majority of rural students say they favour passage of a leave of absence decree.