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[–]Sloppychemist 1223 points1224 points  (66 children)

Honestly, schools get paid based on attendance. It wouldn't surprise me if that blind eye wasn't as blind as OP thought

[–]DomhnallTrumpet 720 points721 points  (45 children)

schools get paid based on attendance

the fuck is wrong with the usa

[–]calvanus 229 points230 points  (7 children)

What I never get is that schools that perform well get more funding which gives good incentives to teachers etc... but worse performing schools get less funding continuing the cycle

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (2 children)

Wow, that is really dumb.

[–]PhinsGraphicDesigner 23 points24 points  (1 child)

This is America!!

[–]SpOnGeBoBnO 10 points11 points  (0 children)

guns in my area

[–]RickToy 13 points14 points  (0 children)

But if we give them money they won’t have an incentive to get better!

[–]Cucktuar 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Most of the funding is based on local property tax revenue. As you might imagine, rich neighborhoods tend to generate more property tax revenue than poorer neighborhoods with lots of apartments and low-income housing.

[–]poneil 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Is that still the case? I thought the latest reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act undid a lot of the more draconian aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act.

[–]StanTheManBaratheon 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It’s been reduced somewhat and Obama’s Race to the Top tried moving grants from schools doing the best to schools showing the most progress in reformung, but it was a voluntary opt-in and naturally schools protested it by not taking part (ironically southern states that probably need the money most). And even that still uses questionable testing standards to decide achievement

[–]GuerrillaChicken 143 points144 points  (6 children)

Many many things

[–]Kagaro 0 points1 point  (1 child)

But not guns or the president... it's those damb mexicans.... If the usa hates mexican imigrants so much imagine how the middle eastern civilians hate the USA...hmmmm

[–]GuerrillaChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your tude sucks

[–]AdulaAdula 16 points17 points  (5 children)

A school that 500 kids show up to daily strangely needs more money then a school with 50 kids

[–]DomhnallTrumpet 25 points26 points  (2 children)

I figured it was meant like:

"Today only 300 of 500 showed up, you get less money."

If the school has 500 registered students, it should get the money for 500, no matter how many show up every single day.

[–]shnuffleupagus 13 points14 points  (0 children)

This is more or less right. It’s based on a combination of enrollment, average daily attendance, and poverty/ local property tax revenues. School funding formulas are ridiculously complicated.

[–]Tycho_B 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think the ideal is somewhere between those two. The funding should be somehow linked/proportional to the average number of students in class on a typical day, with some built in leeway for average number of days missed by a typical student across the state.

Sure, if 200 students don't show up in a given week (say, due to some major flu outbreak or something) then the school's public funding shouldn't be automatically penalized. But if the school is averaging 60% attendance, it would seem somewhat problematic to fund for 100%. Obviously the issue is far more complex than we're making it, but in this theoretical scenario, the public funds would be used more effectively/equitably if spread to students who are actually in class.

IMO the bigger issue is the fact that public school funding in the States is tied to property taxes.

[–]damo133 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Exactly, these idiots are getting angry and dramatic just for the sake of it. Of course schools with higher attendance will get a larger budget.

[–]hammer73time 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Shh don't ruin the America is a hellhole circlejerk

[–]brbafterthebreak 7 points8 points  (10 children)

I’ve never heard of school getting funding based on attendance

[–]bicket6 17 points18 points  (9 children)

You think the school with 200 students gets the same funding as the one with 2000?

[–]brbafterthebreak 6 points7 points  (8 children)

Obviously not. But from what I read/understand it’s based on test scores and student performance

[–]Zack_Fair_ 9 points10 points  (7 children)

I think funding based on scores is waaaay more fucked.

[–]brbafterthebreak 3 points4 points  (6 children)


[–]GraysonHunt 13 points14 points  (1 child)

Not OP but the idea is to reward teachers that produce higher marks cause they’re doing a good job. The problem is that the lower scoring students probably need more resources to succeed and they’re being penalized against. They get lower marks, resulting in lower funding and less resources to help them, so their marks get even worse.

[–]Sloppychemist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It isnt that simple. Take two hypothetical schools, each with 2000 kids and 100 teachers. One has 70% entering on grade level. The other has 30% entering on grade level.

One school can theoretically spread 600 kids between 100 teachers and end up with 6 kids below grade level in each class

The other school has to spread 1400 kids between 100 teachers, ending up with 14 kids below grade level in each class.

Of course in reality they won't spread evenly, but you see the problem, yeah?

[–]Shlappz 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It encourages schools not to teach kids valuable information, but to teach them how to game the system.

Funding based on attendance is also bad and encourages schools to lie about attendance, thus allowing kids to fall through the cracks.

In my opinion schools can only function optimally if they don’t have to worry about funding. I mean, there are other factors involved too, like a competent administrator and teachers that actually care about the students, but lack of funding or even just worrying about funding is probably the biggest limiting factor to the effectiveness of a school. As for how to fund the schools and achieve that, I’m not really sure tbh.

[–]IceMaverick13 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Mediocre scores = less money = less supplies for education = worse teaching = bad scores = no money = no supplies = even worse teaching = even worse scores.

[–]lord_thomas_gaben 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well think of it this way. Students in southern Indiana for example have a higher likely hood of being in poverty. They don't have access to quality tutors, books, or proper home lives maybe. Well they go to a school with a bunch of other students in similar situations. They also don't have access and come test time most of them go under and have comparatively worse test scores and the state and federal government see that and give less funds to this school. Well guess what!? They can't get newer books, they can't hire better teachers, so best of all they can't get better education. Come next year they get the same below average scores. They are stuck in an infinite loop of poverty. Richer districts get better education and more funding. Our education system is a failing garbage system of the past and this administration won't fucking do anything about it either.

[–]ITrytoattempt 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Incentive to grade way more leniently. Some schools might even go further?

[–]BoobieBoobieButtButt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don’t see what’s wrong with it. They’re getting federal funding. The government wants to fund schools that kids actually go to. One way to incentivize the school enforcing attendance is to tie it to funding.


Schools' budgets are set by the number of kids they have to serve. They're not paid by the number of days a student attends school.

[–]Nesano 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's an incentive to do well. Oh, who am I kidding? You know that, you're just trying to talk shit on America because your country is inferior.

[–]Zack_Fair_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that's not really that fucked up. this isn't sick days being docked, it's essentially to keep kids in school

[–]FromU2E 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Attendance gives you an idea of the number of students you need to provide for...ie the amount of money that needs to be spent...what’s so confusing about that?

[–]randomguy186 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A nation of 300 million being centrally governed by a system designed for decentralized government of 3 million.

Centralized democracy simply doesn't scale that large.

[–]doggscube 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You haven’t watched The Wire

[–]skeddles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We think everything should be run like a business because we're all greedy. That's why Trump got elected.

[–]LauraMcCabeMoon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The state pays your tuition for you. The school doesn't get paid if you're not there. It's on a daily basis, down to the dime. Think about it like tuition and it makes slightly more sense. Slightly.

[–]NuderWorldOrder 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's called compulsory education and it's a problem almost everywhere.

[–]XarrenJhuud 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should look up the private prison industry. Similar concept, the more people you have locked up, the more funding you get. These prisons actually lobby for harsher penalties on most crimes as well, making their jails even more populated and profitable.

[–]SleepyConscience -1 points0 points  (0 children)

And in a lot of places property taxes fund schools, so more expensive neighborhoods get better public school funding.

[–]pussyratatouille 12 points13 points  (2 children)

Wait actually? I thought it was only detrimental to the students?

[–]LoganJn 22 points23 points  (0 children)

No the school’s pay is determined by attendance, I remember talking to my superintendent about it last year.

Also any out of district kids pay a tuition in order to go to school there and if you don’t go every single day, you don’t have to pay the full $6000(I’m not sure if that’s the right amount per semester)

[–]Sloppychemist 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nope. More kids more money

[–]Patknight2018 3 points4 points  (2 children)

That's fucked up. Lot of my classmates don't show up so I have to learn with low budget equipment or no equipment at all, that's how it works?

[–]sticklebat 2 points3 points  (3 children)

As with everything, it depends strongly on where. That is not how all states/districts work.

It’s actually pretty uncommon to have such a direct link between attendance and funding; usually the link is through the school’s rating, which is affected by attendance and in some places partially determines funding.

[–]Sloppychemist 1 point2 points  (2 children)

[–]sticklebat 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yes, there exist schools that are funded based on attendance. I never argued otherwise. However, it is not at all the norm in the US; the article you linked even says as much. Someone reading your original post would likely be led to believe that it’s how all school funding is determined throughout the country, when it’s really the exception.

[–]Sloppychemist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point

[–]Fuchsialightsaber 4 points5 points  (2 children)

They get paid based on enrollment. You can have a student that's chronically absent, but still enrolled, and get funding for that student. Absences trigger a whole different process in some states, like being taken to court.

[–]MobileCauseNoPass 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Disappointed, but not surprised.

[–]GuruBushHippie 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nobody in administration at my high school were smart enough to do that. The entire attendance booth was a disorganized jumble of files dating back to when the school was built in the 80s. Administration probably didn’t even know I was doing stuff for her in there.

[–]Orangebeardo 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What? Where? Wtf.

[–]AhH3ck 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So that’s why private schools don’t care if you miss large amounts of time off school. Mine gives you a max of a month or two. You would get pretty far behind though.

[–]PM_Me_Happy_Lolis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

schools get paid based on attendance

Aaah, so that's why they give me an hour of Saturday school if I'm 10 minutes late.


What kind of source do you have? Or are we just supposed to take your word on it?