Should Children Be Paid To Attend School?

Should Children Be Paid To Attend School?

Here’s The Scoop

In a desperate attempt to combat chronic school absenteeism, Ohio lawmakers have concocted a ludicrous scheme: bribing kids to attend class.

A new Ohio bill proposes paying families $500 a year for each kindergartner or 9th grader who attends school 90% of the time, with high school seniors receiving $250 for graduating and up to $750 more for achieving a 3.0 GPA or higher.

State Representatives Bill Seitz, a Republican, and Dani Isaacsohn, a Democrat, are sponsoring this bipartisan bill, which would create a two-year pilot program costing taxpayers a whopping $1.5 million.

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Targeting schools with low attendance, Seitz told the House Primary & Secondary Education Committee, “we’re going to pick sort of the worst of the worst on attendance and see if we can move the needle.”

Since the pandemic, school absenteeism has skyrocketed in Ohio and across the nation. Isaacsohn believes that “money is motivating” and that “sometimes people need a nudge to get back to positive behavior.”

Despite these claims, several Republicans have criticized the bill, arguing that it fosters an “entitlement mentality” and that the state should not pay people to follow the law.

State Representative Josh Williams questioned the slippery slope this bill creates, asking, “Are we going to get to the point where we’re paying rapists not to rape?”

Instead of throwing money at the problem, perhaps lawmakers should focus on addressing the root causes of absenteeism and the severe learning loss caused by remote learning during the pandemic.

But then again, that would require real solutions, not just “foo-foo stuff.”

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