Money for grades? Mayor Bloomberg proposes a new plan for NYC children

Cash is cool: Mike

Nothing wrong with it, says mayor, of kids scoring dough for grades

BY MICHAEL SAUL and ERIN EINHORN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Posted Saturday, June 9th 2007, 4:00 AM


Mayor Bloomberg

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Mayor Bloomberg defended a controversial proposal to pay kids for high test scores yesterday, but said there are no specific plans to make it happen.

"As one of the new approaches to try to tackle the intractable problem of poverty, we have said that we would raise ... $50 million privately to encourage people, using economic incentives," Bloomberg said. Money for test scores is "one of the possibilities."

The Daily News reported exclusively yesterday on a plan to pay fourth-graders as much as $25 and seventh-graders as much as $50 for high scores on so-called interim assessments, which, beginning in September, will be administered in all city schools. The tests will help teachers determine what kids know and what they still need to learn.

The mayor's Opportunity NYC plan also would give poor families cash rewards for actions like taking their kids to doctors' appointments and attending job training.

The test-score proposal, which education officials say is preliminary and has not yet been approved by the mayor or Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, would be structured differently, with the money going to schools that would then pay it out to kids.

Dozens of principals who attended an information session this week expressed initial interest in the program, including Rose-Marie Mills of Middle School 343 in the South Bronx.

"My kids need incentives to do really well, and they're not privy to some of the finer things that other kids are," she said, noting that poor families can't afford to reward kids for good grades as easily as middle-class families can.

Maryann Manzolillo of Intermediate School 162 in the Bronx said she would put the incentives in school-based bank accounts, then use them to teach kids about managing money.

Now, she said, attendance is low on interim-testing days. "Children say, 'Oh, it's a practice test. It doesn't count,'" she said. "Money makes everything really count."

Some teachers and parents yesterday applauded the idea of motivating kids, but others, including Tina Pack, a mother of eight who lives in public housing on the upper East Side, had reservations.

"In my mind, kids will cram to do better on a test, but what knowledge will they gain?" she said. "I never say if you get an A on a test I'll give you a reward.... What if maybe you're working really hard and you get a B? I'm trying to reward the learning."

msaul@nydailynews.com

With Carrie Melago, Jens Dana, Elaine Chan and Karl Stampf



---Now my parents used to offer $1 for every A I got but this is a new spin on motivation. How can the city afford to pay children for grades? This, to me, is a testimony that NCLB has led the nation to all-new-LOWS as far as education is concerned. High scores, low values, that's the effect of NCLB. And can we truly blame Mikey B? The guy is a billionaire; he thinks in terms of dollars! His iris is the shape of a golden dollar, his pupils are dollar-signs, this guy is the money man! And what better way to motivate poor children to do better than to pay them? Instead of paying the teachers more money to stay after school and assist them, let's pay each child $50...it's so much cheaper to pay 4th graders to pass a test than to give them the books they need to study for the test. Mayor Mike has seen the light but it's so bright that it's clouding his good senses. TRY AGAIN!