Should students have money given to them to go to school? According to Time Magazine, a
school in France is doing just that. The article states, “If the students maintain good attendance records
and reach performance targets agreed upon with their teachers, reward payments will be added to their
class accounts.” Students should not be paid to go to school just as a bribe for better attendance and
grades. The reason starts with what the problem is and how far some schools will go to fix it.

The main problem is that too many students are not coming to school as often as they should. In
the same story, Time Magazine states that the ones getting paid are “the ones most apt to fail and drop
out.” Schools don’t want to see their students drop out. A study done in 2009-2010, written by the
Arizona Department of Education, says that the total number of dropouts, for the school year of 2009-
2010, was 13,891 students. That was a total rate of 2.7%. Usually, low attendance or a failing grade can
identify future dropouts.

This means that most schools would probably focus on those students with the low attendance
and failing grades. The school in France also admitted that truancy and dropout rates are high.
Personally, I don’t know of too many dropouts. Like the school in France, I wonder how other schools
solved this issue.

Another problem is that there are too many signs of students leading to drop out of school. The
solution for some schools is low and, in my opinion, embarrassing. The solution is bribery. That school in
France is not the only school sinking to this level. CNN wrote a story about a school in Ohio t is paying
students to attend. An article done in the New York Times, in 2007, states how some New York City
$500.00 just for doing well on standardized tests. I don’t understand how receiving money will help
students earn good grades. The article in Time Magazine said that the earnings will not go directly to the
student, but to the school account. This way, the money will only be used for school services.

Personally, I don’t think that paying students would work at all. If a school has improved
attendance, it will only make the school look better. If the student is going off of bribery, and doesn’t
even want to be there, their grades will probably not improve. This brings me to the conclusion that
bribery may improve attendance but there is no guarantee that it will improve the grades. I would try
other solutions to improve grades. Some of the solutions that I have heard of and seen success in would
include tutoring or having study groups. The main statement is students should learn on their own and
should not be bribed by others.

The point is, students should not be paid to go to school just as a bribe for better attendance
and grades. Schools should be able to do something to stop the issue of low attendance and failing
grades in the first place. There wouldn’t be any need for bribery if there was no problem. If the problem
does occur, there are other solutions. Time Magazine stated the paying was still going on when the
article was written, so the results are undetermined. Even though I don’t know if bribery worked, I
highly doubt it did. Some students, like myself, can get good attendance and grades without bribes.