May 28, 2008
Students Argue for Cash Incentives
We're all for finding novel ways to motivate D.C. public school students to get good grades and go to college, but something about this story in the Examiner strikes us as odd. A group of students are lobbying the D.C. Council to revive legislation that would establish a system of cash rewards for student achievement. The bill, which as it's currently written would provide valedictorians $3,000 apiece and students who have improved the most $1,000 each, was originally introduced over a year ago but was tabled due to a lack of funding.
Part one of why this seems weird: The image of high-achieving students arguing before the Council that they deserve cash payments for working hard. Promoting a Council-led scholarship fund for D.C. public school students would be one thing, but that the actual students who would theoretically get the cash are the ones behind the movement for the bill makes it a bit tough to see them as altruistic do-gooders. Are there actually students out there who will testify that if $1,000 was on the table, they would be getting better grades?
Part two of why this seems weird: There is no money in the 2009 D.C. budget, which has already been approved, for this program, so the timing of the push is badly miscalculated.
Part three of why this seems weird: Despite the facts that the legislation has been off the table for so long due to a lack of funds and that the newest budget also does not provide any money for it, the students are actually pressing for the concept to be expanded to include charter schools. The charter school students feel they are unfairly being left out of a program that doesn't exist.
Now, incentives for students are a legitimate idea to look into, and perhaps there's actually a solution to financing them, like maybe by teaming up with a corporation with local ties to provide scholarships to graduating seniors from D.C. high schools. But there are other problems, even apart from appearances, with the bill both as it's currently written and as it's further being proposed. How do you measure "most improved"? And couldn't the city's numerous charter schools manage to set up their own incentives at the level of the individual school?
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Public schools should take their cue from gameshows.
Wink: Now, our game shows are a little different from yours. Your shows reward knowledge; we punish ignorance.
Homer: Ignor-what? [flames come out of his microphone and toast him]
Gadzooks...I saw a bit on 60 Minutes the other night about the self-entitlement of the Millenium Generation and I thought surely they piece was exaggerating....this makes me think not-so-much....
Seems a bit absurd. Getting into college and not working at the golden arches should be motivation enough. Also, wouldn't put it past students at some DC schools to shoot their competition... "Salutorian arrested in tragic slaying of would be Valedictorian"
High school kids do stupid shit. Some things they do are unmentionable, some things like lobbying for "pay-for-grades" are just sad. Someday they will look back at this effort and cringe in embarrassment because they realize what worthless little ingrates they seemed like. The best thing to do is ignore them, and if they don't let us, laugh at them until they get the hint.
Doing well in school is reward enough.
Our Council needs to get real.
I'm pretty sure that "part two of why this seems weird" is pretty much the point -- if the idea had been brought up before the budget was finalized, there would have been pressure to fund it. By bringing it up too late, Brown, Thomas, Schwartz and Barry get credit with the people who pushed the proposal without actually having to risk it passing.
A much better use of funds would be to pay Maryland to take the dumber kids off our hands.
Um, if you're the valedictorian of a D.C. Public School, it is likely you are going to get a great scholarship to the college of your choice. Isn't that good enough?
Give me the good old days when kids were rewarded by being shot while resisting arrest.
And get off my lawn.
why dont they just award the DC high school class of 2009 a contract to build the new soccer stadium and let the kids work everything out themselves-chock it off as experimental learning
sorry..should have been experiential learning
If you offer to pay kids for better grades then why wouldn't most students simply opt out of learning. They would see education as an optional activity where they get paid for their productivity and it is just as easy for a kid to take the standpoint that he then has no obligation to attend school and do well. I probably find it easier to skip most jobs that I had rather than school. I felt obligated to do well and perform at least somewhat respectably whereas if I had a job I didn't really feel like going to on a given day then I just wouldn't go. I just lose out on some cash and basically exchange that lost cash for the opportunity cost of leisure time.
Aren't financial rewards for doing well in school called scholarships. When I graduated from high school (all two years ago), that's how I remember it.
This is a bit of the ridiculous. This is simply throwing money at the problem, rather than solving it. The concept that students should be rewarded for their hard work completely misses the point of academia - a quest for knowledge, not a quest for cash. Give me money, because I did what was required of me to be a productive member of society? Give me a break.
But why SHOULDN’T students be able to lobby the City Council for a piece of the pie. After all they’re simply copying behavior they’ve seen on TV. Like when that family of whores made a big stink about getting a free stadium in SE, and then said they would consider suing the city when it “wasn’t ready on time.” It’s the American Way, and by God we’re entitled!!
This is inspiring me: I should be rewarded monetarily for my hard work. In addition to my salary, I should receive regular bonuses for finishing projects on time, dealing with idiots, and giving it 110%.
Of course, I also shouldn't be spending so many hours posting on DCist. So maybe that's why I'm not getting any money awards at work.
Can I demand some monetary reward from DCist?
This is almost as ridiculous as giving Ford's Theatre $10 million out of the city's budget. Almost.
i want to be paid for EVERYTHING i do that i'm supposed to.
it reminds me of chris rock: