Too Bad It Didn't Die OF Loneliness

I love our public education system. I especially love that which we have here in the state of Arizona. Those teachers and administrators and school board members are just so darned creative and responsible and dedicated and efficient and… well, I can’t type this with a straight face anymore. It seems that our educators here in Tucson AZ, a bastion of Regressive thought, had a bright idea. If the kids won’t come to school, we’ll bribe the bastards. That’s right. Bribe the kids to actually invest in their own futures.

I remember my family’s view of education from when I was a child. I was told to go to school and get good grades. And my parents had a number of really great reasons. I’d have a better chance at a good job and a future. I’d learn to think creatively and be prepared to face the real world that lay ahead. My parents wanted better for me than they had and education was the key. And the most important reason of all: If I didn’t go to school, study and apply myself, I was gonna get an ass whoopin’ with a splintered Frat Paddle that my derriere was all too familiar with. Good reasons, all.

But, we live in a post-Dr. Spock world. We are feeling the effects of trickle-down blame-enomics. It seems that parents feel the educators should be raising their kids and the educators seem more than willing to oblige. Thus we arrive at the new Bribes-for-Books pilot program in Tucson, AZ. The gist of it is, if a child has good grades, a good attendance record, and doesn’t drop out, they get a (at least for the pilot) stipend of $25 a week to do what their parents should be beating into them the directive to do anyway.

At present, it is being funded by a non-profit organization. But I foresee this becoming a part of the already ponderous public handout Hydra. As they have selected their students from a pool of low-income kids that were already doing well, virtual guaranteeing a false positive of success for the pilot, I see an outcry, as the data is finally tabulated, for the state to fund this incentive in perpetuity. And not just in Tucson, but throughout the State’s education systems. And then, how long will it be before it creeps onto the national scene and this graft-for-grades program becomes the norm in all 50 states?

If one observes this critically, an entirely different conclusion and result can be extrapolated. And it is very different than the misguided and retarded intent of the backers of the experiment. This is starting the children off early in the Entitlement establishment. If a child learns to expect compensation for that which they should be doing anyway, they are going to take that lesson and apply it to the rest of their lives. What happens if or when they go to college? Will they demand a signing bonus? How about when they enter the job market? We already have enough people who think they have a right to work and a job regardless of their work ethic, skill level or dedication. What becomes of the workplace and the economic producers in the nation then?

No, this will not work. It will not have the desired effect. And it is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve heard this week. Unfortunately, with the Left, the next half-assed, ill-advised, brainless scheme is just around the corner.

This idea, like most that manage to rattle around in the Regressive pea-brain, should have died of loneliness like its sisters and brethren before.

-Jesse W