The Price of a Good Education

MasterCard tells us that there are somethings that money can't buy but for everything else there's MasterCard. Well, it seems that some school officials down in Georgia are hoping that perhaps money can buy something good and that's decreased dropout rates. Not sure what that means? Well, apparently Fulton County administrator Robb Pitts is pushing for the approval of a pilot program in which students would be paid a base 'salary' of approximately $7 an hour for the time they spend in school. What he hopes to prove through this pilot program is that kids who are given some incentive to go to school will work harder to stay in school (and continue earning a paycheck apparently).

I am personally of the opinion that this is going to send the wrong message to kids and teachers. Teachers have one of the toughest and most under appreciated jobs out there. Working in often difficult conditions with limited resources (depending upon the school system) they try to get kids ready for the big bad world. What people fail to realize is that they sometimes earn less in some counties than an office admin who simply xeroxes documents and answers phones all day. Both are essential to the industry they support but I think teachers are of greater importance simply because they are the ones who will continue to feed intelligent young people into the workforce. They are actually helping students get better prepared for the workplace so that when they start working, they may have more opportunities presented to them.

Some may say that this paying students to learn may be beneficial to those in low income areas but do you think that it's going to help keep a family together if their financial situation is that dire? Plus where is the money going to come from? Teachers have been lobbying for years for pay increases and not many of them have seen it take place. Here now is money that could be going to them to help their cost of living going to students who don't really need it. Plus, isn't this really a type of microcosmic Communism in essence? Although the details of this 'plan' by Pitts hasn't been detailed completely, I didn't recall hearing any provision for academic excellence. I mean does it mean that someone earning a perfect score will still only get the same as someone barely passing their courses? Rather than being a motivator, I foresee this becoming a de-motivator.

Students may get to the point where they'll realize that there's no point in bending over backwards to study in school since you'll only end up with the same base pay anyways. While the trial program is set to be paid for by corporate sponsors, I don't know how long that type of arrangement would last. After all, even corporations have to look at paying their employees rather than sending all that money to students who may or may not see it as motivation to study. Perhaps it may cut down on truancy and perhaps it may encourage students to be present in school but sometimes forcing perpetual troublemakers to remain in the classroom by offering them a 'carrot' can be more trouble than it's worth.

I remember one case of a student in my eighth grade class. He had once been about three years ahead of me in school but due to repeated failures (due to excessive absences) he had stayed back long enough for me to catch up to him. His main problem was that he just never wanted to be in school simply because he didn't like his teachers. He used to argue and create havoc to the point on the days that he was forced to return to school that our teachers spent more time in pacifying him than anything else. He still remained truant and no matter what they administrators or his parents tried, they couldn't figure out how to motivate him. Finally there was a breakthrough when they found that there was one teacher, our physics teacher, Mr. Reeves, who spoke to him in a manner that was neither condescending nor insulting. He used to treat him like a friend rather than a student and on the days we had his class, this boy was always there. It made such a difference that he started attending a little more regularly and managed to pass into ninth grade with us. It just shows that sometimes education isn't about incentive, but rather in the approach to teaching kids.