TN - Let's Tie Welfare Payments to School Performance!

[happy atheist]

In a brilliant move that could not possibly have a downside, the Tennessee state legislature is trying to pass a bill that would cut welfare payments to families whose kids have poor school performance or attendance. Because obviously making the kids hungry will solve everything.

Rich people whose kids do badly suffer no consequences. Homeschooled kids are ignored as well.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2013/mar/3 ... elfare-in/

Legislation to cut welfare benefits of parents with children performing poorly in school has cleared committees of both the House and Senate after being revised to give the parents several ways to avoid the reductions.

What a bunch of fucking morons.

[javafriend]

This is an April Fool's joke, right?

[happy atheist]

This is an April Fool's joke, right?

Sadly, I don't think so.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Sooooo theyre punishing kids for not being clever by taking money away from their family...

This will make things worse because kids who are hungry because they cant afford food are likely to act up in class and have poor school performance. Also theres too much pressure on the kids to achieve, which will make them stressed and more likely to fail. Theres also going to be an increase in child abuse because parents will put too much pressure on the kids and might beat them for bad grades and blame them for the family being poor.

[Buzzard]

As amended, it would not apply when a child has a handicap or learning disability or when the parent takes steps to try improving the youngster’s school performance — such as signing up for a “parenting class,†arranging a tutoring program or attending a parent-teacher conference.

Dennis told the House Health Subcommittee the measure now only applies to “parents who do nothing.†He described the measure as “a carrot and stick approach.â€

Ok, so if the intention is to get "do nothing" parents involved, how about we give them EXTRA stuff for being involved or exceeding expectations? If the intended target of the legislation is the PARENTS then aim at them, not the mouths of kids.

[Trynn]

This is the stupidest...well, not THE stupidest but...

What if said child just isn't academically inclined? Take me, for instance. It's not that I don't work hard, or that I'm not clever, it's just that Academics aren't my strong point. I learn much better by doing rather than memorizing information just to regurgitate it on tests and then forget about it later because it's likely to be rather useless.

[happy atheist]

This is the stupidest...well, not THE stupidest but...

What if said child just isn't academically inclined? Take me, for instance. It's not that I don't work hard, or that I'm not clever, it's just that Academics aren't my strong point. I learn much better by doing rather than memorizing information just to regurgitate it on tests and then forget about it later because it's likely to be rather useless.

Then it's your fault your family is hungry tonight. See? Doesn't that solve everything?

[Burris]

If a child’s failure in school is related in some way to under-participation by parents, then cutting social assistance to the entire family will do nothing to remedy the situation. Rather, these parents might simply place more pressure on their children to perform without offering anything in the way of help.

This is just another case of legislators doing their best to punish “the least of these†for either being disabled or for failing to have an optimal level of parental involvement – neither situation over which these children would have any control.

The solution, I think, is to bypass the parents altogether and give some power to the children themselves: If legislators really want to break the cycle of poverty by encouraging children on social assistance to try their best in school, it might be well to have the children paired with mentors and rewarded themselves – that is, they are given a reward for themselves rather than one that flows down through their parents – in exchange for better attendance and grades.

[TinyDancer87]

I'm nervous that children who get bad grades will get severe beatings if the check fails to come in.

[So Says I]

Ok, so if the intention is to get "do nothing" parents involved, how about we give them EXTRA stuff for being involved or exceeding expectations? If the intended target of the legislation is the PARENTS then aim at them, not the mouths of kids.

I agree. Adding incentives for parents who are significantly involved with their children's education (including staying on top of learning disabilities) and for the children who do their best in school and continue to improve is the way to go. Punishing hungry families and leaving them in uncertain living situations will only compound the issues kids can have. Every family deserves to eat and have a roof over their heads. These legislators are a bunch of elitist dumbshits who have it all bass ackwards.

ETA: TinyDancer87 has a very good, and chilling, point. I can see the abusive type parents taking welfare cuts out on their kids, rather than trying to make the situation better.

[hywelis]

Sooooo theyre punishing kids for not being clever by taking money away from their family...

This will make things worse because kids who are hungry because they cant afford food are likely to act up in class and have poor school performance. Also theres too much pressure on the kids to achieve, which will make them stressed and more likely to fail. Theres also going to be an increase in child abuse because parents will put too much pressure on the kids and might beat them for bad grades and blame them for the family being poor.

Physiology 101. The whole idea of tying welfare payment to school performance is moronic.

Hywelis

[RosyDaisy]

UNCONSCIONABLE!!! DISGUSTING!!!

[EmiGirl]

As a TN resident I will be e-mailing/calling my senator who happens to be a personal friend this evening.

[sacrilicious]

I have a few friends/family who have worked in or are currently working in underprivileged schools and it is heartbreaking what some of the kids have to deal with. Middle (maybe highschool?) student falling asleep in class because he was up at night caring for a baby sibling while his mother worked, teachers bringing in food so that the children actually had something to eat, another middle school student beaten and robbed at home and his father murdered, etc. But no, let's punish children who are already in crappy situations where they aren't given the tools that they need to succeed. Yep, that's a good idea. :angry-banghead:

[EmiGirl]

I have a few friends/family who have worked in or are currently working in underprivileged schools and it is heartbreaking what some of the kids have to deal with. Middle (maybe highschool?) student falling asleep in class because he was up at night caring for a baby sibling while his mother worked, teachers bringing in food so that the children actually had something to eat, another middle school student beaten and robbed at home and his father murdered, etc. But no, let's punish children who are already in crappy situations where they aren't given the tools that they need to succeed. Yep, that's a good idea. :angry-banghead:

I have family who ARE those people! There is no way my little cousins will ever be honor roll students. It's not because they aren't smart. It's because they have no one at home who cares whether or not they did their homework at all; let alone care if they did it correctly. When they came to my mom's house every day after school and I helped with and check their homework both of them were making A's in all their classes. Since they're not, they both make C's, D's, and sometimes F's.

[Dandruff]

Even if parents tried to pull their kid's grades up there would have to be a delay, at least until better grades are reported to the State, before benefits would be resumed. During this time the parents would also have to be working harder or finding other ways to feed their family. How are they supposed to successfully do both? Will there be a warning period before benefits are cut?

[Trynn]

Then it's your fault your family is hungry tonight. See? Doesn't that solve everything?

In that case, I will learn to cheat really well and really fast, if the honest way isn't working...

[RachelB]

Sooooo theyre punishing kids for not being clever by taking money away from their family...

This will make things worse because kids who are hungry because they cant afford food are likely to act up in class and have poor school performance. Also theres too much pressure on the kids to achieve, which will make them stressed and more likely to fail. Theres also going to be an increase in child abuse because parents will put too much pressure on the kids and might beat them for bad grades and blame them for the family being poor.

*nods* There's a good reason that the public schools of my youth offered reduced-price or free lunch (and, eventually, breakfast) to kids whose parents' income fell below a certain amount. Even short-term hunger affects people's ability to reason, to think about something other than how miserable they feel, to make good decisions, and to control their impulses. (The study that comes first to my mind: the biggest predictor of whether a person up for parole in Israel would be denied was how long it had been since the judge had had a meal. And those judges presumably aren't dealing with prolonged food insecurity the way that children from low-income families might be-- just with normal biorhythms.)

This is the kind of "solution" that makes the problem worse and more entrenched. This is the kind of "solution" that could result in a permanent underclass, if you are of the opinion that we don't have one already.

[Bloo]

All of my students have IEPs, meaning that they have disabilities ranging from mild (speech delay) to severe (.1 percentile in the areas of adaptive behavior, personal/social behavior, communication skills, academic skills, and motor skills). Nearly all of them are on free lunch as well, and though I don't know for sure, I suspect that many of their parents at least qualify for welfare.

Granted, some of my students with milder delays stand a good chance of academic success. However, I have students who are nearly five and for whom potty training is still several years down the road. Alternative assessment only covers so much, and as much as I encourage these children to achieve as much as they can, at some point you have to realize that academic success is beyond their ability. However, I see nothing in this proposition that allows for that.

This isn't fair for ANYONE, mind you, but it's inconceivable for those students in special education.

[MarthaMarcyMayMarlen]

It should not be the childs responsibility to provide for the family. How hard is that for some people to get?

[treemom]

Why is my state so dumb?

[Boogalou]

Tim Hudak (the leader of the (not currently in power) conservative party in Ontario) is proposing Ontario do something along the same lines as this. He wants government student loans for post-secondary education to be tied to students' grades. In both cases it makes no sense whatsoever and would probably end up causing more harm than good. Has stuff like this been proposed before?? Has it ever been tried?

[NjoyingNsanity]

I noticed it was also tied to attendance, so say your kid got really sick nothing life-threatening, but say a bad bout with the flu or pneumonia like my son had when he was in first grade, and that causes the kid to miss more than the allowed number of days in a semester should a family be punished for an illness? In my own experience sometimes a family can get hit with a bunch of bad luck all at once my freshman year of high school my grandfather died of cancer in September and my great-grandmother died suddenly less than a month latter. I missed allot of my first few weeks of high school because we had to keep running to the hospital because they were sure he wouldn't live through the day. Sometimes families are going through some kind of crisis that is nobody's fault, and they shouldn't be punished for that. I also had a friend whose grades dropped dramatically after her little sister died in an accident. Her parents took it very hard her mom nearly had a nervous breakdown she was pretty much useless for weeks as she barely got out of bed. Should my friend's family have been punished with hunger on top of grief over a child's death because my friend's grades suffered for awhile? The people making this law lack the ability to think beyond their own greed and pre-conceived ideas of why poor people are poor. They also lack any sense of mercy or compassion, even towards and innocent child.

[FlorenceHamilton]

Why is it that the Christian religion of love handles everything in a punitive manner? It does not seem to me that Jesus was a big proponent of that method of changing human behavior.

[artmama]

Why is my state so dumb?

Stacey Fucking Campfield.