Forthetimes

Last week in Detroit, I was surprised by all the efforts by school districts to make sure students were present and counted on Count Day. Count Day is the day that determines how much state funding schools will receive based on the number of students attending the school. So naturally the more students in attendance, the more money the school gets. Schools offered students everything from the chance to win a trip to Disney World and a plasma screen television to i-pods, pizza parties and everything in between.

Since I’m not from Michigan I was shocked to see this type of behavior. Since when do schools start incentivizing or bribing students to come to school. Back when I was growing up, you either showed up or ELSE! But I guess it’s a new day. One where our administrators and teachers feel incentives are the only option. My real sadness, however, stems not from the incentives that are offered to the children to attend school on Count Day, but what I perceive as the lack of effort to get them to school in the week since the first official day of Count Day. I don’t see any administrators or teachers on television or school districts running television ads to encourage kids to get to school at all this week. No wonder many of our kids think our schools don’t carry about them but only about the money. It’s hard to disagree with them in light of what I’ve seen over the last two weeks. Our school systems need to do more to show students that an education is important and school attendance is not dependent on whether they receive a reward or not. So I ask the teachers and administrators who are interested in making sure kids get to school everyday to stand up and be COUNTED!