Making the Grade
Should Texas pay students to learn?
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7 comments
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010, 10:06 am
Sean S says:
I think that everybody is missing two critical pieces of information here. 1-Who cares if kids go to school "just to get the money"...if the point of the proposed idea is to keep kids in school and help them get a better education...and it works, who cares if it’s strictly due to financial motivators, this happens every day in the corporate world and will be a continuing theme in these teens’ lives, why not start it now. 2- Forget the difference between offering this to Ninth vs Tenth...or Eleventh graders, whatever... I think that a proposal like this would get struck down if you only offer these incentives to kids at poorly performing schools. It could be said that there are likely more financially underpriveleged youth attending these schools but this wouldn’t seem fair to, say a kid (already doing his or her part) at even an exemplary school. How is it right that kids that are already doing poorly would get rewarded while a child that is putting forth maximum effort isn’t offered the same benefits. Additionally, there are many financially destitute kids that could and probably would make use of this program, even though they may attend a much higher performing school. I’m not opposed to the idea, I just think that it may need some re-thinking.
Pepe
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:24 am
Ben Dover says:
The idea of paying students for their good grades as a fresman is a good one because students are motovatied to work hard for their grades and the money. When money is brought into the factor yes that would keep more students in school and keep them on top of their grades. But what if they lose their motavation
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:17 am
adam says:
In my opinion paying students for their grade, however ludicrous may actually work. Some people believe that students shouldn’t be paid for school. But it might actually give the possible drop outs some incentive to stay in school. It could even help pregnant teens or teens with babies be able to support their babies while staying in school. Most drop outs drop out because they need money to support themselves or even a child and the only way to do that is to get a full time job, and they cant do that while in school. So with schools paying these students they wouldn’t need to drop out.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:13 am
imogenapparatus says:
i believe that any school should conduct a percentage on the kids that stayed in school after their freshman year. If this evidence was provided we would be able to know if the money is the motivator or just a pocket filler. Take for example, Chigago is testing this experiment with a sum of $300,000 so far going towards this idea. 300,000 is alot of money for any school. If shown that students are not worthy of this great oppurtunity by not putting forth effort when money is not involved, then schools should take their money and help the school, not the students.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:11 am
nicole says:
I believe that giving money to students to help improve their grades is a good idea for the most part. Considering that Chicago is the only state that has even tried this and still has not shown any type of data, I would still kind of want a have to see it to believe type of thing. If this actually worked, then a lot of students that might have dropped out would still be getting an education and actually have a chance at this screwed up world of ours. I just think that basically whatever it takes to keep teens in school is what we need to do. On the other hand as I believe that this would totally work, I also think that once the students realized that they are only going to get paid for their freshmen year and not the rest; they might be like screw this and say "I’m not working unless I get paid because its the way I know and the way it should be." This is just the type of thing a teenager would say, I should know; I am one. This here is the only problem I see. What if the students become to dependent and there is an economy problem to where they have to stop paying them for a short period of time? How many grades would drop? How many teens would drop out? Teenagers are like dogs, once you give them a bone they wont give it back. I don’t like to think that my generation could be this snobby but thats how it is and there is no denying that. I believe we should try this idea in more than just one place and see where this “experiment†takes us. I know for a fact that if this was going on at my school I would go for it all the way and there is no doubt in my mind that it would help big time, not only with grades but with teens staying in school too. The only thing we can do is try it out and see what the outcome is. You can’t accomplish anything without trying first.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:10 am
Anonymous Hawk says:
The article "Making the grade" by Texas Monthly depicts the idea that students should be paid for good grades. In fact, I believe that the this notion is completely against rights of lawmakers.
On the one hand, there may be a necessity to do this for some ninth grade students who are in increasing danger of dropping out of school. Though why are the ninth graders the guinea pigs in the lawmakers plans. Although statistics show that the high school dropout rate is highest in ninth grade, it is hard to defend the lawmakers proposition of the law, because were only causing motivation one grade level to stay in school and giving the rest a chance to actually drop out. This proposition would only stop the students from dropping out in the ninth grade. In my opinion, if we do this more students will drop out in the tenth grade and so on, only delaying the actual secession from the school system because their deliberate intent is not to study, but for the money.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009, 9:04 am
Bob! says:
I think thats its a good idea for these reason of staying in school and actualy trying to acheive their goal of staying in school and not dropping out on top of that their getting money in return for the work their doing in staying in school and making good grades. Many kids i think will go for it and actually stay in school because of yes the money but at the same tim ein the end they will be learning something weather or not they think they are. Although somewhat i see reasons for not doing it because of the fact that most kids will take advantage of the money and just go to school for that, also i dont agree with them only giving them money for their freshman year i think that if their going to go threw their whole freshman year doing that doesnt mean that they wont drop out after that in their junior or senior year. In my perspective i think if they want the kids to actually go threw all of highschool they should do it threwout their whole 4 years of highschool and then it will be worth it.
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