Cash for Grades
Education opens many doors.
But should the main one be at the bank?
School districts throughout the country are increasingly paying students for coming to class, taking tests, and improving their scores as part of controversial incentive programs known as “cash for grades.”
In Baltimore, high school students who make the grade can make some money—up to $110 for raising their scores on state assessment tests.
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, passing students can turn a school day into pay day, earning $300 if they attend 90% of their classes for the year.
And near Atlanta, eighth and eleventh graders who take part in a special after-school study program are paid $8 an hour—more than the
minimum wage in most states.
Supporters of earning while learning point to increased attendance and higher test scores at underperforming schools where no other form of educational motivation has worked. “We’re in competition with the streets,” said one Bronx junior high school principal of her students. “They can go out there and make $50 illegally any day of the week. We have to do something to compete with that.”
But critics of the programs—many of which are privately funded—say the payments are simply bribes, and that using money as a motivator sends the wrong message to kids about their responsibility to learn.
Would George Washington Carver have come up with his inventions in horticulture if someone had “bribed him?” asked one critic. Would Marie Curie have been inspired to spend long hours in the lab? “What kind of message do we give unmotivated kids,” he wondered, “when we give them something they never earned?”
Tell us what you think: Should schools pay students to learn? Is learning all the way to the bank responsible?
Add Comment Share This
Comments
Creating better funding
I think it’s unfair to condemn schools for trying. Schools are severely under funded and if the goal is to get more funding, where’s the evil? With better funding, schools can create a better learning environment. In the long run this will help more students.
I think everyone agrees that these programs have the potential to help some students, obviously not all of them. That would be unrealistic but even if it helped a few, is it not worth it? For those who do it for the money, they will realize that money is not free rather worked for. And yes, sometimes in lousy ways.
The point is schools can’t depend on the ‘system’ to help them so they have created funding for themselves. If, in the process, they can motivate students to do better, then go for it. I think it’s a better idea than vending machines that promote obesity and poor health.
juan mendez | 1 year, 6 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Sure, Why Not?
Many kids can’t participate in after-school programs or projects because they have to work to help support their families. This sounds like a way to bridge the gap between earnings and school – to show kids that their education is valuable and important, and to keep them in school where they should be, rather than working an evening job at McDonalds.
Swej Lanigan | 1 year, 5 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Why not just do the work for them also?
Paying money for what is a gift is stupid. Children should be taught that an education is a gift not a job. I would rather see a tail paddled than see a dollar go for grades. Parents should pull there heads out of the TV and teach there children some live lessons. I happen to Home school, but the result can happen in home or school. Education is the best gift a parent or teacher can give a child. And when you pay for that gift you take the prize out of it. While I have a problem with Public Schools, I respect the art of learning. And if my children had come home with this plan, I would have been the first objection raised. This is just BS.
Purelabor | 1 year, 5 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
These children our are Next Generation in our Work
Are you going to give them an incentive to COME to work too? As a trainer in Corporate America, I see the recent graduates entering today’s workforce. Their work ethic is frightening. Calling in sick (or their mommies do it for them) on their 2nd day of employment and expecting to be paid sick time. They should be thankful they are still employed. As a parent of 3, my home has incentive for good grades based on their individual achievements and consequences if they don’t. Playing sports, favorite theme park, fishing trips and yes cash have been rewards. Consequences included being removed from the sport, cell phones ipods & video games taken away and my favorite.. pulling weeds. Now THAT’S motivation to do well in school.
Debbie Pirollo | 1 year, 4 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
I just don;t know what to say..
If my parents caught me skipping school or doing something illegal there would have been heck to pay. Parents just are not strict enough anymore. I don’t mean physical abuse by any means, but something needs to be done by the parents.
Kathy | 1 year, 3 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
I agree
The amount these schools are paying and for certain programs. is a little ludicrous, but the idea as a whole is a good one. Being paid for the after school study programs and attendance is smart, but not for test scores. This could actually hurt some kids who truly work hard and study but still fail to succeed. Study groups should be based as a whole. If you’re not there for the whole thing you don’t get paid. Attendance should be paid by . Instead of $300 for 90 attendance, how about $100 for 100%, $90 for 90% and so on. Giving kids $300 a semester for 90% attendance is just too much of an allowance.
Satina Hart | 1 year, 3 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Nooooooooo
Giving cash for grades cheapens education as a whole. Going to school and getting the best grades you can is an obligation, NOT a chore. Not to mention the fact that schools have provided a whole new excuse for cheating, stealing answer sheets, and even paying others to do the work for you: “I did it for the money.”
Rachel Wilkinson | 1 year, 2 months ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
Different for every kid
Why not survey kids and see how much harder (and vice versa) they’d try if this program were implemented at their school? Like, survey kids at all ages and from all sorts of economic backgrounds. In the survey, include questions about how strict their parents are, how often they skip school, how good they are at school, whether they have friends at school that they enjoy seeing, etc. Figure out which kinds of kids this program would help and hurt, and implement it at schools with the kinds of kids it would help the most.
Personally, I think there are some kids that would benefit from this, but it probably would have cheapened my education. Anyway, you really can’t implement a program like this at every school since America already spends more money on each child’s education than any other country does.
Andrea | 1 year, 1 month ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
WRONG REWARD
This may be a good idea if funds were equally distributed to all races. However, that will not happen due to several facts:
1) These funds will only be distributed to low income non-white children. This is sending the WRONG message. The message is: If you stay at a low income (poverty) level, the government will pay you to be stupid and lazy – just as it has been doing for decades. Take for instance Hurricane Ike; I am white, therefore the government will not help give me money. I either have to pay my way or borrow the money to fix what was destroyed.
2) Our government has created a run-a-way economic society to with it’s keep up with the Jones or your look destitute.
3) The government created a society where both parents of a blue collar class (white or black) have to work just to keep head above water. So, there is no parent raising the children except for the TV. TV has taught the new generation it’s OK to drink, party, smoke, have sex, kill, listen to rap which is NOT music. Rap teaches kids to shoot cops, have sex with ANY-THING or anyone and to be someone you are NOT and chase money and not your own dreams.
4) If a family unit is not split up by social or financial demands, law enforcement finds a way to split the family sending one of the parents to prison. Unfortunately this has happened to more blacks than whites. However, times are changing.
5) Which brings me to our courts. Courts are not about justice, courts are about financial gain. If you have the money you can buy anything or anyone, including so-called Justice.
6) What happened when society took God out of school? Killings in school! Took God out of the human race? More death, disease, more killing and disasters. Now economic calamity and the new leader wants to take away from those who work and give the money to those who don’t – kind of like paying kids to make good grades.
David Love | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
dollar rewards for students
Born 65 years too soon!
Matthew Morgan | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
Add Comment | Post Reply
< 1 2 3 4 > Last » (6 pages)