Wednesday, October 14, 2009 9:14 PM CDT
COLUMN: That carrot-on-a-stick thing might work for students, but not voters
By PENNY WEAVER, News Editor
pweaver@jg-tc.com
I expect it’s fair to say that most high school students, if they don’t have it already, would like an open campus so they could go wherever they want for lunch.
I’m sure it’s also fair to say that most school officials, who definitely don’t have it already, would like to have as much funding for their districts as they possibly can.
Now, what’s that old saying? “...want in one hand and spit in the other, and see which one fills up first...” ... edited for a family newspaper, that is.
The Mattoon school board on Tuesday was asked to consider allowing “responsible” juniors to leave the campus for lunch one day per week. Seniors already have the privilege of exiting school grounds for the mid-day mealtime.
Ah, how intriguing. I think it’s nice to reward good behavior, since far too often bad behavior gets punished and the good things that people do are simply taken for granted.
But I’d really expect schools to set the bar juuuust a BIT higher.
The Mattoon plan would allow 11th-grade youth to have their one-day-per-week freedom from school cafeteria fare if they, 1., maintain at least a C average, and 2., have no disciplinary problems — at least, not in the most recent three weeks.
Well now. Aim high, kids! Just maintain those C’s and only get in trouble every four weeks, and your reward is waiting for you!
It’s disappointing to me that the proposal doesn’t require young people to at least maintain a B average or, better yet, have all A’s. Are we willing to so easily reward mediocrity?
Of course, not every student is capable of getting all A’s; the idea of letting average kids get a pat on the back too has its appeal.
But do we have to reward young people just for doing what they should do anyway? Is that the only reason that will interest them — the carrot on the stick?
Ah, but the problem is, so many adults now are like this. I’ve hired — and fired — more than a few young people in my career who thought that just showing up for work and filling an empty seat was enough.
I don’t need a pat on the back for doing a good job, either at work or anything else. It just seems automatic to me to always do the best I can at anything I try.
Drat! My parents are to blame for this seemingly inherent work ethic that I cannot shake. “Work first, play later,” is what I learned.
So what happens to me? I can’t sit in my recliner at home and relax to watch TV unless the housework is all done first. I can’t relax on a day off until my “chores” are completed.
What dastardly training! And I don’t recall any carrot-on-a-stick schemes, most of the time, from my parents. Strangely, they seemed to think that you do the right thing because, well, it’s the right thing to do.
Imagine.
I’ll be curious to see what Mattoon’s school leaders decide on the Freedom for Well-Behaved Juniors Initiative (that’s my catchy little name for the plan; like it?). It’s expected that the board will vote next month on the proposal.
Even if the school board doesn’t disappoint moderately smart, mostly rule-compliant juniors, I think Mattoon and other Coles County school leaders are in for a big letdown in February.
With the Coles County Board’s vote Tuesday night, the question of a 1-percent sales tax to help fund schools will go before voters in the spring. Mattoon, Charleston and Oakland school leaders — pretend to be surprised, now — all support the move to add the sales tax to help fund operations and maintenance.
School officials say that if the proposal passes, they’ll be ready, willing and able to lower property taxes and use income from the sales tax instead.
Yes. They do think we all were born yesterday.
I don’t blame school folks for trying. Certainly, we need to rely less on local property taxes to fund schools. If this really was a tax “swap,” I could vote for it.
But there’s no requirement for school boards to reduce their property tax levy if an influx from sales taxes comes in. They say they’ll do it — they’re putting a carrot on a stick in front of voters. Well ...
In Mattoon in particular, school leaders have a credibility problem. Fair or not, many folks remember the referendums for new schools that were voted down. Yet ... Mattoon got its new elementary schools.
I’m not arguing whether or not those schools were needed. The fact remains that the school board didn’t abide by voters’ wishes, so what voter would reasonably trust the same district’s school board to make this revenue swap?
I’d like to reward school districts for responsible behavior, really. But there have to be criteria.
They’d have to, 1., maintain at least a B average in their Credibility With Taxpayers classes, and 2., have no disciplinary problems for the entire school year.
Oops. I seem to be getting my topics mixed. There surely is no connection between rewarding the good behavior of teenagers with a privilege versus giving school districts a new tax because, well, they SAY they’ll give up other funding.
It’s not as if either group could be expected to do what’s right for the sake of the fact that it is right, or make do with what they already have because that’s what taxpayers, in their own lives, have to do.
I guess I’m just confused. If it were up to me, all high schools would have closed campuses, at all grade levels, and school funding would come from ’most any other source more fairly distributed among the population than property taxes.
But then, I got C’s in math. I doubt I’d do better if I went to high school now, even with a new carrot-on-a-stick policy for lunchtime roaming.
I just don’t like carrots that much.
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Mama says wrote on Oct 15, 2009 6:09 AM:
When I was in highschool, we had the snack shack on Marion Avenue and for a quarter have a maid rite, bag of chips for a dime, and a foundtain coke for 15 cents. Those were the good ole days.
I hear complaints about the cafeteria and when visited found nothing bad to say. Kids just don't want healthy food.
The vending machines have variety. If you are there on your HONDA, I wanna ride to fast food with you Penny. lol.
I can feed ya the carrot stick as you do the driving. LMAO. "