£12 credit for well-behaved teens

[T_i_B]

Here's a policy idea we've been discussing in this thread that probably deserves a thread of its own. Make of this what you will.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4687203.stm

Teenagers are to be offered financial incentives not to behave badly - as the government puts forward plans for modernising youth services.
Teenagers from low-income families could receive £12 per month on an "opportunity card", to spend on activities such as sport and music.

The card would also entitle them to discounts in some high street shops.

But if young people were guilty of anti-social behaviour they would lose access to the card.

[mikehiggins]

1. Bread and circuses

There really is little reason to expect representative democracy will survive in the world. This little beauty is the kind of thing us old curmudgeons look at and shake our heads.

It is eerily similar to the free bread Roman authorities and politicians would provide to win the support of the masses.

What's next? Soylent Green?

[Guy_Montag]

2. When my Dad was doing teacher training

at the end of the 60s, he did some months in a deprived area of Edinburgh.

In order to encourage the disruptive pupils to at least attend, they were given priviliges such as: counted as not playing truant if they were in between 10am & 2pm & got free entry to the local pool. There were various others which escape me now.

Eventually, of course, formaly well behaved pupils started acting up, so they too, would get the privilidges of those who had behaved badly from the start.

Seems to me, this is what they are suggesting, just couched in better terms.

Point two:

While at university, in the dying years of grants, one of my school friends, whose parents were seperated & lived with his mother & two sisters, got a full grant. (Only his Mum's income was counted). He lived the life of Reiley, since his father also paid for him through university. The point being, on paper he was not well off, in reality he was loaded.

Right time to turn off my closet Tory switch.

[non sociopath skin]

3. Many schools, particularly those in social priority areas and EAZs, ...

... have run similar schemes on-and-off for years. Only the scale would be different.

It might have some short-term effect but it's unlikely be a universal panacea.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. If they think the teenagers are well behaved

then why not give them the straight money, because they could be trusted to spend it sensibly? After all, choice is paramount in education, isn't it, Tony? Why does this have to be tied to a photo-card?

Answer: because this is an ID card - teenagers will be asked to show it before being given access to places. If it was just about the money, then they'd just stop putting the money on the card if someone was found guilty of something (and what's the standard of proof, do you think? A criminal conviction? ASBO?).