Should family benefits be tied to school performance?

This approach puts the burden on kids to perform rather or not their parents do their part - get the kids to school on time, dressed, and ready to perform. It may lead to physical and verbal abuse if the kid does not come home with good grades.

A better approach would be to make sure parents are available for parent teacher conferences, they are available when teachers and the school calls, and to require attendances at some majority number of PTA meetings or other school related activity that require parent participation to ensure they get the full benefits of social programs. Programs that are necessary to ensure the kids are fed, clothe, get their homework assignments completed, and to school on time with good attendance. Both parents are preferable, but one will do for single parent families or if work or school schedules of the parent(s) create a conflict - but not a blank excuse for non-participation. Set standards for parents that they must adhere to.

Yes child, if you don't do well on this test, we are going to take your families food away.

Yes, all 3 of your children will have to do well or your whole family is out on the street.

We don't care that inner city schools don't get the same resources, you still have to do as well as the schools in the suburbs on the same tests, or your single mom will lose her payments and we will take you away from her.

I suppose that will make a child’s academic efforts less stressful and we can count on the program to succeed spectacularly.

I guess a child that is there every day, and on time, will still have to do well too. After all, Campfeild knows of people on welfare who do not take their child’s education seriously, so we can assume all welfare recipients do not take their child’s education seriously. You know, sort of like a lot of Catholic moral leaders are pedophiles, so all Catholics are pedophiles. I wonder if Campfield thinks this will prove once and for all that no matter what you do, the poor can not be educated and are just lazy and don't deserve our compassion.

We all know the only reason a poor child would not do well academically is because poor parents don't care about their children’s future. If they did care, there would no such thing as a child in poverty that can not excel at academics. They have so many quality resources. Like educated parents to help them.

What will Tennessee do if the child can’t do the work no matter what the situation? Good opportunity to save budget dollars right there I expect. Savings that could be used for tax cuts for the rich people who own Republicans. Why, Republicans like Campfield could stack the deck against the inner city schools even more than they already have and end one of those pesky social programs that way.

I wonder if this wouldn’t work for any child that is failing at school. The corporate head could lose his/her tax exemptions or government subsidies if his/her kid does not do well or is tardy. I mean come on. That child will have better teachers and recourses, so why should American tax dollars subsidize a parent with a child doing poorly in school when that child is advantaged in the first place? Keep those subsidies from that uninvolved corporate leading parent. Not enough to affect the corporation, just enough to match his/her previous years bonuses. Why should corporate welfare recipients be exempt from this rule?

Excellent start. Teachers are to teach, parents are to parent, and many of the welfare recipients, as indicated here do not start their day until 11 a.m., are
an insult to taxpayers who support their non-working habits.

Add drug testing to this program, as well as food stamps and Section 8. -
we have too many takers in our country, and the insult is to all of us
who work hard and pay taxes.

Start requiring these takers to step up, or kick them out of all of these
hand-out programs.

Nothing like screwing the poor to make a rightwingnut smile.

*****I have always said the golden ticket out of poverty is education...*****

Absolutely! Welfare programs are basically analogous to feeding the ducks. Education, in contrast, can give the less priviledged the boost they need to climb out of the brutal cycle of poverty. Right on!

*****.....and education, to me, is a three-part stool — schools, teachers and the family. We have already put a huge burden on our schools and our teachers. What we have not done is put a burden on the family to make sure they are stepping up to the plate.*****

Again, right on! Why do we have a stereotypical view of Asian kids doing so well academically? I have observed this personally: if parents are removed from their child's academics, no amount of government money or good teachers will solve the problem of poor performance in school.

Bottom line: It's a fact of nature that people respond to incentives. Tie their welfare benefits to their child's school performance, and watch the motivation go through the roof. =)

Great post!