Local nonprofit to pay Rincon, Amphi students for attendance
Chosen randomly from a pool of students who live in "poverty-stricken areas," 175 juniors from Rincon and Amphitheater high schools will be paid up to $25 a week this fall for going to class, officials said Wednesday.
The program, dubbed the "First Job Project," will continue for three years, with a goal of preventing students who live below the poverty level from dropping out of high school, said Lou Barsky, whose newly formed nonprofit organization, Youth Education Security Inc., is behind the effort.
Barsky said the pilot project will cost more than $1 million ....
"A student who might have had to choose a job over going to school might now be given the hope to stay in school because of this program," he said. "I'm not trying to say $25 is $1 million, but that's not what is important. What's important is the hope we're giving to students who are living in poverty."
I would be shocked to find that students drop out to work and are working so many hours that it prevents them from attending school. More than half of drop outs said that the major reason for dropping out of high school was that they felt their classes were "uninteresting and irrelevant" (Bridgeland & di Iulio, 2006). Drop outs also reported that they "felt alienated at school" and that they aren't able to keep up academically which isn't surprising considering that only 30% of high school students can read proficiently. Paying students won't change that.
The up side of this is that it is not tax payer money, though that may not be entirely true. Since the funding comes from a nonprofit organization which is exempt from paying taxes, then it is in essence a tax payer subsidized program after all.
In a previous post, I said that "First education was a priviledge, then it was a right. Now it is a curse."
My new moto is, "Now government schools are so bad, they have to pay students to attend."
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Related Tags: truancy laws, forced education, public school
5 comments:
At first I was astonished to read the beginning of this post... as it progressed I became disgusted and perturbed, but by that last comment, it was all worth it. My feelings were redeemed. Great motto.
You think maybe this would give them a clue. Certainly there are some bored philanthropist-types out there who would love to dump more money and time into the pss. I mean, if they can raise money to pay children to go to public school, then why are we supporting it with our tax dollars??
And, I know I am saving them money. We have 3 teenage children (and 5 more thereafter). Why aren't they paying me to homeschool them? 3 for the price of 1. Could it be that they really don't know a good deal when they hear one?
Once upon a time, perfect attendance for the whole year earned you a copy of Shakespeare's complete works.
That motto is tragicomedy at its finest.
>That motto is tragicomedy at its finest.
Thank you.
>Why aren't they paying me to homeschool them?
Considering how much money we are saving the system, that would make sense to pay people not to send their children to government schools.
This is not really any different from New York now paying poor people to go to work, go to the doctor, and paying kids to do well on tests. Did you read about that? - Paying for Good Citizenship
>This is not really any different from New York now paying poor people to go to work, go to the doctor, and paying kids to do well on tests.
No, I hadn't heard about that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
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