Cash rewards for going to school? Why would anyone think taxpayers should do that?

Why in the world would we pay kids to go to school?

Re "Can cash get kids to attend school?," Jan. 17: When are parents going to be held accountable for their kids going to school?

Paying kids to go to school is not the answer. What happened to truancy and the enforcement of that? Since when is there extra money to throw around?

Money for teachers, safety, and bus drivers should be the priority, do you think I’d vote for a levy again?

Not!

Put God in the classroom and home. Charter schools are the answer. Pray for heart changes.

Andrea Bell, Galloway

Why are so many kids truant? Do gadgets make it too easy for kids to skip school?

How about we hold poor Johnny or Sally's parent or parents accountable

I actually had to read the Jan. 17 article "Can cash get kids to attend school?" twice, in disbelief, and then let it rest for a day before I wrote this letter.

So let me get this straight, I am now paying for a billon dollar school levy {I live in Columbus} for a school system that has been on the brink of and — by all rights — should have had government takeover for decades, fails and continues in every academic area of student achievement, has probably the lowest attendance ratings in the state, allow kids to choose and help facilitate to whatever gender they wish to be that day.

Cash to go to kindergarten? Ohio lawmakers consider incentives to boost attendance

You can't go to a football or basketball game for fear of your life, staff shortages at every turn.

And these folks want to pay kids to go to school.

Well, I just can't believe I didn't think of that. What a great idea.

God forbid we would hold poor Johnny or Sally's parent or parents accountable for their child performance and behavior. Let's just throw more money at it.

At least they will have gas money or bus fare to go to the mall. Long story short this bill is proof positive that there are people in our legislature that are clueless with no real answers.

And if I sponsored or co-sponsored this bill I would consider tendering my resignation before I did real harm.

James Smith, Columbus

Bribes are not the answer

Have some state representatives started using marijuana now that it is legal is Ohio?

I can think of no other reason that Rep. Bill Seitz and Rep. Dani Isaacsohn would propose a House Bill 348 to pay students to go to school and pay them more if they graduate.

The Jan. 17 article "Can cash get kids to attend school?" noted that AttendanceWorks.org reports that rewards don’t necessarily have to be monetary − extra recess time or competition between classrooms can be powerful motivation, the group said.

How about having schools try nonmonetary approaches and use the $1.5 million of initial funding (bribes) to study the results of the nonmonetary approach.

Better yet use the $1.5 million to determine the root cause of chronic absenteeism. It is irrational to think that $250-500 will be a strong motivator for improving attendance or graduation rates.

Raymond D'Angelo, Westerville

More housing not parking

Maybe I talk to the wrong people, but I don’t know a single person in Columbus who doesn’t agree we have a housing problem. Albeit, not everyone agrees on how to solve the problem. I think we should be building more dense housing and fewer parking garages.

A recent proposal to develop the former Spaghetti Warehouse building is calling for a 577-space garage. Put another way, that’s the equivalent of about 160 studio apartments.

Yeah, we don’t have great transit here. But we’re never going to get good transit if we keep investing in parking. It’s time for Columbus City Council to enact parking maximums.

Rob Leis, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio lawmakers want to pay kids to go to school. That's a dumb idea.