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Thu 13 Sep, 2007 10:59 am
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Poor families line up for Bloomberg cash-for-school plan
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BY KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Thursday, September 13th 2007, 4:00 AM
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One mother works for a hospital but doesn't earn enough to give her children lunch money.
Another needs cash to cover the cost of school uniforms.
A third hopes to give her daughter an allowance for the first time.
The three women are just a few of the thousands of struggling parents who signed up for Mayor Bloomberg's bold experiment to pay parents for sending their kids to school and the doctor and meeting other common-sense goals.
Families can get up to $5,000 a year in payouts. An annual medical checkup gets each family member $200. The families get up to $500 if a child attends high school 95% of the time and an additional $600 for each Regents exam teens pass.
"I thought, 'This is a scam,' when I first got a call about it," said Antonia Campbell, a 48-year-old Harlem mother of three who said she'll use the money to pay for tutors and give her kids lunch money.
"If they hit a wall in school, I want to be able to get them a tutor," said Campbell, an administrative assistant at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.
Half a dozen participants told the Daily News they already are doing many of the activities that earn cash rewards, but they welcomed the money.
"It's very expensive raising a child in this city," said Christine Chimelis, a single mother of three from East New York, Brooklyn.
Chimelis, 30, works for the mayor's cash-incentive program, known as Opportunity NYC, and a fellow staffer told her she qualified for the incentives. Like the other families, she was selected through a lottery, officials said.
So far, about 3,000 families have signed up for the two-year privately funded program. Half of the parents will receive money for meeting health and education targets. Half will not get money, serving as a control group. City officials expect to reach their goal of enrolling 5,100 families by the end of the month.
"What we are trying to do here is use capitalism to encourage behavior," Bloomberg said at an East New York community center, where he announced that participants can get $50 just for opening bank accounts.
Larry Mead, a political science professor and welfare expert at New York University, is skeptical that the payouts will change behavior. "I think you'll find that incentives by themselves won't have a large effect, but I'm not opposed to trying," he said.
Comments anyone. I am speechless.
Very sad when parents have to be paid to do what they are supposed to do to begin with.
I can't guarantee that the cash payouts will work--but I think the idea is worth trying.
All the world--including the NYC school system--is full of parents who sort of tumbled up without particularly good role models.
Money talks--and the payoff is immediate.
I've been thinking about this question.
There have been times in my life when the only "power" I've had is to opt for Not Doing something that I know I should do.
Example: I should do a set of stretching and bending exercises every day. Some days I just don't wanna. I've got the gumption to offer myself motivating rewards, but a lot of people aren't accustomed to taking charge of their lives.
The extrinsic rewards could help here. The extrinsic rewards could also mute some of the "you think you're smart because you're trying to be better than the rest of us" peer group drag.
fishin wrote:Very sad when parents have to be paid to do what they are supposed to do to begin with.
Well, due to unforseen circumstances, it can happen that parents need
financial aid. Who are we to judge?
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I think this is a great idea, and to me it shows that Bloomberg is interested
in the welfare of New Yorkers . It is definitely worth a try and no harm will be done, except helping those in need. One has to be a misanthrope to see something wrong with that.
CalamityJane wrote:fishin wrote:Very sad when parents have to be paid to do what they are supposed to do to begin with.
Well, due to unforseen circumstances, it can happen that parents need
financial aid. Who are we to judge?
-------
I think this is a great idea, and to me it shows that Bloomberg is interested
in the welfare of New Yorkers . It is definitely worth a try and no harm will be done, except helping those in need. One has to be a misanthrope to see something wrong with that.
It's a sad commentary when parents have to be paid to send their children to school. Financial aid hell call it what it is Welfare.
It doesn't matter what you call it, au, if Bloomgerg is willing and obviously able to help underprivileged kids graduate at least from high school, and get decent health care, what's wrong with that?
We need to break the cycle somewhere, and starting with the kids is
an excellent idea.
C.J.--
Exactly. Break the cycle.