The cycle itself is the worst enemy. That occurred to me as I was visiting the Magic Johnson Theater to have my first view of The Fantastic Four. I don't often get over to that side of town much now that I rarely attend church services. I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and I knew I would be able to find the perfect hair for braiding at the beauty supply store in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall.

It's probably difficult to put together all the parts of the above paragraph, so let me explain. I was listening to John & Ken on KFI 640 AM in Los Angeles and there was a guest on who was suggesting that California taxpayers pony up $1,000 per head to the parent of any student who scores at or above minimum proficiency on the California standardized proficiency testing. One of the callers was so angry at this proposal that she ruffled my feathers. Taxpayers’ money is wasted on many things all the time, and sometimes it makes me angry, so normally, I'm sympathetic with anyone who is upset about how their tax dollars are being spent (or wasted), this time I was angry at the caller. Because in her tone, and boasting, I interpreted her attitude as "if these kids parents don't care enough about their children to ensure their success to ensure they study and make "the grade" screw em. But WAIT! When did we, as a society, start punishing kids for what their parents did or didn't do? Didn't we do away with the laws that allowed to you take a family member to work off the debts or their parents? In most cases, a child lack of success in school is directly related to either a lack of parent education or a lack of parent care and involvement in their child’s education whether that lack of involvement is due to ignorance or resources. If you're a single parent with less than a high school education (or the recipient of a sub standard public education) who works all day, comes home and makes dinner, does laundry and takes care of the other household duties, it is entirely possible that finding time to sit with each child and make sure they their homework is done and that they are gaining an understanding and proficiency in the subject matter being taught (when possibly that parent isn't their self proficient in the subject matter) can be nearly impossible. As the caller rambled on, she busted her butt to make sure all of that was done, and if the other parents didn't, she wasn't going to give them $1,000 to do what she was already doing for nothing. HEY, what about the kids? Let's presume for a moment that a child is rewarding their future by getting a good education, then how about we examine what a good parent might be able to do with $1,000 to help their child get better grades and test scores.

1) Take some extra days off work to attend parent/teacher conferences
2) Send their child to after school care for homework assistance instead of them being latchkey
3) Get some assistance for learning difficulties
4) A few evenings or ordering pizza and helping children with homework, instead of cooking
5) Offer incentives to their kids for keeping up in school, getting good grades and test scores

Then there are the bad parents. The ones who see $5,000 as a chance to get super, super high. The ones who finally get a chance to get that GOOD booze. Okay, everybody, hold on to your hat.......WE CAN'T PUNISH THESE KIDS FOR HAVING SUCK ASS PARENTS! So worst case scenario, their parent is yelling at them to get their homework done instead of get their loud friends out of the house. Again, I think only the child benefits. I'm willing to entertain certain restrictions on say a parent who has a DUI, or a prior drug conviction. Maybe their $1,000 has to be partially in the form of a Target or Wal-Mart gift card (can you smell corporate sponsorship/subsidy). These are stores where you can get just about anything you need from food to clothes to toiletries. Maybe you get a matching program where the parent get $1,000 gift card to Sears or Best Buy that retailer will match that gift by 25% or 50% and allow that family to finally replace that old refrigerator that was barely keeping their food cold and have something left over to buy school clothes. The possibilities are endless and again the worst case scenario is that parents are using less than perfect incentives to make their children excel and I'd say that's still a step in the right direction. Maybe you make mandatory parental guidance classes that teaches parents how to appropriately motivate their children to take school more seriously a requirement for collection of payments. That might be something to consider if a parent still can't seem to encourage their child to improve and excel after a couple of years of instituting the program.

As for the parents who are already doing this who will now collect $1,000 for their hard effort...I'm not a bible thumper, but I do remember a parable in the bible where a man came to a land owner early one morning and said he would work all day for a penny. The land owner said okay, and hours later another man came buy at noon and said he would work the rest of the day for a penny. The land owner said okay to this man as well, and still, another man came along near the end of the day and said he would work the few hours left in the day for a penny, and again, the owner said okay. At the end of the day, the man who arrived early in the morning was angry because the two other men, who had worked fewer hours than he, were receiving a penny, just as he was, and the owner said, "We had an agreement and I paid you what we agreed"? Why do you begrudge the others what they have? I ask the same of the parents who are already doing this for nothing. Are you not proud of what your children are accomplishing with your support? Aren't you glad that you know what you know, in order to teach your children what you are teaching them? Aren't you thrilled that you can give your children opportunities that many less fortunate children will NEVER have, even with a $1,000 subsidy? Be glad for that, and realize that the children who don't get that are NOT to blame for their situation EVEN if their parents are to blame which isn't always the case either. If we raise a generation of children who, because the right positive reinforcement was offered are not a drain on society, but are productive working, tax paying members of society, don't we all benefits from that? Because if the TRUTH is you're secretly wishing to maintain a population of oppressed people for your own personal reasons, then I would recommend we stop even talking like, or pretending that we want everyone to have a equal chance at success and just let well enough alone.

How is the cycle itself our worst enemy? Because more dangerous than the temptation of drugs, crime or gang's. Quick money, early and/or irresponsible parenthood is the danger that you will do in your life exactly what you've seen done and if the above is what you've seen done, and there is no tangible reality to remind you that there are other choices, then the cycle is very likely to be repeated, just like your children are likely to follow in your successful footsteps, so are the likely to follow in your footsteps of failure, unless we attack the true enemy, unless we interrupt the cycle and start down a different path.

I'm not posting in support of this plan specifically, not yet anyway, but the hostility of the caller really struck me, because I for one believe we need to become more creative in solving the problems in the schools and in education overall. I have no doubt that if the children are not motivated to learn and excel in learning, too much of the the money put into school, books, desks and teachers will be wasted.