Picture Courtesy of the O.C. Register
Javier Zamorano, a student at Santa Ana’s Middle College High School, won “a shiny black Chevy Aveo with a price tag of $15,200,” for perfect attendance this year, according to the O.C. Register.
The Santa Ana Unified School District doles out prizes at the end of each school year to students who have achieved perfect attendance. They do this because they lose a lot of money when kids skip school.
However, the World Health Organization just declared a Phase Six global pandemic, as the Swine Flu has now emerged all over the world. Is it a smart idea to encourage perfect attendance – and thereby discourage sick students from staying home?
Of course not. And quite honestly I don’t know of any other school district in Orange County that bribes students so they won’t skip school. This fits right into the culture of low expectations that is the rule at the SAUSD.
Now let’s consider the wisdom of giving away a car to a poor family. They admitted that they don’t have a car. So how are they going to pay the taxes incurred by winning this car? And what about driver’s lessons for the young man – and insurance? And who is going to pay for the gas and service fees? It is nice to win a car – but there are many thousands of dollars in hidden costs that this struggling family is going to now have to contend with.
Shouldn’t the SAUSD give out bikes instead? Wouldn’t that be “greener?” And what if, God forbid, this kid gets in an accident and gets maimed or killed? Will the SAUSD incur liability?
It is good to encourage kids to stay in school. But there are times when they legitimately have to be late or leave early or not attend at all. My oldest son had numerous appointments with his doctor this year after he hurt his arm pitching for the baseball team at school. So he could not win a perfect attendance prize. But he is an honors student. You see the problem with this stupid prize program? There are times when students cannot achieve perfect attendance – but that doesn’t take away from their academic achievements, does it?
The ultimate irony is that this same school district is laying off hundreds of teachers and classified workers and already planning to increase class sizes next year. And at the same time they are advertising for six figure administrative positions. And God knows how much they blew remodeling the district offices this year.
So no, I am not going to join in celebrating this perfect attendance program. It is lipstick on a pig. Good luck to Zamorano. I hope he can come up with the money to pay for the taxes and insurance on his new car. He is a good student – and that is the rub. We should be celebrating his hard work and his academics, not the fact that he had perfect attendance. The latter is quite simply a fluke.
1st
I had to be like the TMZ posters! 🙂
First of all, with all of this swine flu going around encouraging students to come to school ILL so that they can win something is really “not too bright.” Ok kids, it’s ok to kill off the rest of your classmates with your swine flu…be here or report to the SAUSD attendance person who has wasted “my time” on more than one occasion. Why bother reporting an attendance concern when all I received back was…”woke up late” “no transportation” etc. I didn’t need an attendance person to tell me that. This district really has some winners working for them.
Its all about money jill, nothing else!
Art, I have to disagree with you on this one, you CAN’T blame the school district for the ASININE policy of the state, the deducting of money for absent students. The schools STILL have to pay the teachers,janitors,principals,secretaries,utilities, etc.,etc. EVEN though students are absent. This means BIG BUCKS to schools, this isn’t about sick kids going to school, but heightening awareness about taking UNNECESSARY days off and the scheduling of doctors appointments.
Case in point; it worked on my family, I usually take the kids out a few days a year, extending weekends for vacation time. My son heard about the car give away and refused to miss school, now he didn’t win the car, but it was good for his school.
Santa Ana has a big problem with kids missing school for absences other than illness, if this helps, great, we need all the ideas and incentives we can get.
SAUSD’s other problems have NOTHING to do with this.
anonster,
There is a simple fix then. Kids should be allowed to keep their record perfect with a doctor’s note or some other proof of illness, such as a letter from a parent or guardian.
From what I’ve read of the contest description, the car is donated by the Santa Ana Chevy dealership, and their insurance is paid for one year. This comes at no cost to SAUSD.
a car for attendance…not academics…my students are sent in so sick they can’t learn, but ‘yay’ while we all catch what they have, they can get a car at the end, and no regard to their learning. the student who is focused and earned good grades, gets to watch this.
Art, a better solution; have the state STOP dinging the schools for absences, as that is BEYOND their control.
This contest is trying to address just ONE issue of the MANY that plague our schools, let’s not be too negative.
How about 95% attendance. allow for 1 unexcused absence each quarter or semester. So if children are sick they can take the day off so they can recover.
I see your point, Sad Teacher, but it wouldn’t surprise me that those with perfect attendance probably earn high grades. As I look through my own student records, those with the least absences earned high grades. Those who have an insane amount of truancies earned poor grades.
When I practiced in the school funding arena, there was colleague who was the architect of the shorter summer/longer XMAS vacation idea.
Since his district was in the Central Valley and most families in his district drove home to Mexico for the Holidays (many could’nt afford to fly)this made sense. In addition the the breaks coincided with the growing/picking season.
This novel approach got his sh*tty little district millions of dollars in ADA money. We need school board members AND management that changes things.
Let us not forget, New York City has nieghborhoods where citizenship is NOT required for school board elections. The board members are of thier own, representing their own.
Here we have dyed in the wool politicians or special intrest slaves representing the masses of students. As such, we end up with:
A CONTEST FOR COMING TO SCHOOL.
duplojohn, the shorter summer/longer winter break; done. Now what?
I would have never won the car, but a lot of the problem starts at home. My dad had me going to school sick or well and I would have had a sore ass if I skipped out. You cannot do that now, but certainly one could take the cell phone or x box away.
Perhaps the contest if any should reward the parents for thier childrens attendance.
What would be a fair alternate way of determining how school funding is distributed?
Jim Benson, why take money away from a school because a few kids are sick? If 5 first-graders are out with the flu, the teacher still comes to work, as well as every other employee, WHO CAME UP WITH THIS DUMB-ASS POLICY?
Bottom-line; schools should NOT be PUNISHED for something they cannot control. How would you like your employer to dun you $100 dollars every time it rains? This is the same principle.
SAUSD is no different than the city — band aid solutions. There is no effort or thought to providing a “solution.”
If SAUSD had one, cohesive parent organization group, they could take on the ADA problem and help remedy the loss of ADA income. But no, the district has invested in the conquer & divide parent concept which yields paralyzed parents. SAUSD likes to keep their customers dumb and in the dark.
Why the district agreed to dangle a car for near perfect attendance is beyond me. What life lesson is this teaching our youth? You get rewarded for something you should be doing?
This car give away for attendance phenomenon sort of made me curious as to how country wide this idea goes. I quit looking after I received 192,000 hits on my search engine. Apparently this is not an unusual provocation to attend school.
In the few links that I read a couple of variations on the program were interesting. For example in Elkhart, Indiana the car donated was a 2002 Dodge Stratus. In the Chula Vista area, two different districts awarded cars. In both cases the cars were considerably older, one a 1997 Mustang GT. These cars were donated by a towing company and refurbished by students and adults in various Auto repair classes.
In Dayton Ohio the car was a 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier and the oldest car given away I read about was a 1990 Buick Regal in Piqua Ohio.
What seemed consistent in these few stories I were that none of the winning students were old enough to drive or they didn’t have a driver’s license yet. In all cases these kids had high GPAs and in all cases the number of students eligible to win were about 200 or less out of the entire school or district population. I have no idea what percentage of students this turns out to be but I’m sure it averages out to somewhere close to what SAUSD’S was for its giveaway.
Frankly, if a district is going to award a car just for showing up, I liked the idea of giving away a used car refurbished by students and adults (presumably certified safe). That puts the reward in the face of the students all year long as it is being prepared for award. I see that as a positive ongoing ‘stimulus package’.
If the district wants to give away a brand new car for anything, let that new car be awarded for the highest academic scores achieved by a graduating senior. Just my take.
If the carrot must be dangled, then let it be a laptop computer or scholarship. A new car is not necessary.
# 13 I did not say basing funding on attendance was a good idea, I asked if someone had another idea.
Rewards for achievement would be a better idea for prizes, but perhaps the people giving them designated them for a specific use. Attendance is the 1st step to acheievement.
A most improved academic preformance reward or award for the year might be a good reward idea also.
Jim Benson, there are many different awards, scholarships and incentives for a variety of activities and performance, this is JUST ONE, that has been DONATED to the school district by a generous business, to address ONE issue, attendance.
There is always room for more incentives, but to criticize the district for this positive reward, strikes me as off base.
I did state that good attendance is the first step to success, And I pointed out that the donor likely specified what their reward would be given for.
The attendance funding is a seperate issue that has to do with how the state divides up the school funding in California. It has nothing to do with private free will donations.
I agree that any incentives that can be come up with and are donated by private businesses or individuals should always be welcome
Yes, this is a CA state policy, but I think students should be rewarded based on their academic performance and outside service to their community, as well.
What the F*** is wrong with some company or person donating a car to a school district to award perfect (or near perfect) attendance? Does anyone on this fucking BLOG really believe that someone in 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade is even aware of the ‘award’?
The bottom line is that students in high school become aware that, assuming they have made it through the first 9 years with perfect attendance, there is an incentive for maintaining perfect attendance in the last four years of school.
Art, you’re an ass to characterize Javier’s attendance as a ‘fluke’ – Jaiver should be commended, and rewarded, for his efforts.
No one is suggesting that students that are truly sick should go to school. You really enjoy going to extremes. SAUSD didn’t give the prize – a local car dealer donated it.
As for ‘greener’ awards – there are plenty of schools that give out bikes to kids that have perfect attendance. But be real – you expect an 18 year old, college bound student to really ride a bike to school? As for affording insurance and gas – damn right he needs to learn to BUDGET and live within his means – something Republican’s in Orange County refuse to do!!!
I guess that all of you boneheads that feel it’s inappropriate to reward students in these last four critical years would also disapprove of bonuses for CEO’s? Come on, you can’t believe it’s OK to reward $1,000,000+ bonuses to CEO’s of company’s that go bankrupt or deny healthcare coverage and not OK to reward a student who makes it through the last 4 years of school with a $20,0000 car?
#21 -Thanks for stopping by angry union hack! OJ wouldn’t be the same without your wee-hours ramblings!
#21
Actually, the car was only for ONE year of perfect attendance, not 4. Happy Hangover!
#15 Anonplus—Good job.
Why didn’t we think of looking that up.
read #21 ‘Lots of energy for 2am!”
RV #22–too funny “thanks for stopping by” LOL
#23— even funnier—hilarious—ha ha “Happy Hangover”! LOL
So much fuss over a car–lets get this dealership to donate some scholarships as well!
On the bright side, it is probably a huge incentive for the entire family if a new family car is needed– ?? Group effort getting the young adults to school on time.
AH—Coffee time!!!! 🙂
#24
Not sure I catch your meaning.
And people keep claiming that no one reads OJ! I have to laugh b/c there are people who have sworn off reading here, yet seem to know every single thing… every little nuance of posting… that has happened while they were “absent”.
I even had an email exchange with a person who is not even associated with SA, SAEA etc.. yet was hooked as a reader and contributor. I think that is an excellent endorsement of what we all have among us here! Keep it up. Even you midnight union hacksters!
Anonplus– good job of looking up other school districts that offer vehicles as incentives for perfect attendance.
Ahh..ok I wasn’t sure what you were referring too…8))