School = Money?

So... Apparently, we are now trying a new system where children get paid to go to school under one pretense: that they get at least a C in a core subject area such as English, Math, Science, and History. So I looked around and apparently this has been around for awhile. ABC and MSNBC have both reported in 2005 that Chelsea High School has a similar program; instead of paying for good grades, they are paying kids to just come to school for the sake of attendance. School officials claim that as long as kids come to school it will boost test scores.

Well... So what's the deal? Before reading Earn an A? Here's $50, I thought this was outrageous! I have been a CPS kid all my pre-college life, by the way. It reminded me of high school, when I was a freshmen and we got our report cards in division and the girl that sat next to me said, "Woo! My mom's going to give me $40!" She later explained to me for every A she got on her report card her mom would give her $20. I was complete cynical about the whole idea of exchanging grades for money towards her. Since growing up with a single parent home with hardly anything, where I get a new pair of shoes once a year, and being told by my mother in her broken English, "School is money. You get education, and you get good job. Then you make lots of money." And for a long time, I believed her. However, that never stopped me from thinking, "Why can't I have this money now?" So in some odd universe the article in the Chicago Tribune made sense to me. I still thought about what my mother said to me. Then I read the different perspectives offered, honestly, I am torn.

A blogger from monster.com said that it is wrong and that is not what school is about. Also, Mike Frazier openly said, "This money should be spent on something more worthwhile. Education is important but at what cost? With the values that this sort of plan entails, students will have no value for their education." They are both right. What are these school officials thinking?! Have we become a society that has demoralized everything and not even leaving education a little shred of dignity left, especially, our low test scores, and the fact the other countries are kicking our butts at educating the youngin's? But, is it completely wrong? This provides a chance for students to lose that job at Mickey D's and focus on school cause it is paying much more than $6/hr. because they are trying to feed their family. Simultaneously, these students can get the grades to go to college. Isn't that what we want: More kids in college? If you take another perspective, students are capable of getting scholarships (private or federal) because of their good grades, also, their economic needs - I'm one of them. So is it really so bad? Can the end justify the mean in this case? The money is not coming out of our taxes to pay these students money - it privatized! So basically, it's a scholarship. Isn't that the bases of scholarships, awarding monetary funds to students with good grades? Our society has been awarding scholarships of this kind of decades even centuries! Why has it all of a sudden become a taboo if it publized by a state institution? Despite that I'm being the devil's advocate, I still have my mom's voice resonating through the back of my mind.