A Couple Interesting Money Articles

Ran into these two pieces today and thought they'd interest you as well:

Big mistake: Wife sells DVD case with $1,200 inside for $10:

When Tracy Holmes of Belleville sold three DVDs for $10 at her garage sale Aug. 15, she thought she was doing well. She was getting rid of some movies that she and her husband hadn't watched in a long time and making a little money as well.

About a week later, when her husband, Fred Holmes, asked her what had happened to the DVD of "Sin City," she suddenly felt sick.

Her husband had been secretly saving up money, at least $1,200 so far, for a Christmas family trip to Disney World in Florida for the couple and their three children.

"He thought apparently (the DVD case) was a great spot to hide it from me, and it was," Holmes said. "I didn't think to look there."
As best she can remember, Holmes thinks the man who bought the DVD was about 6 feet tall and in his 50s or possibly 60s. She's hoping that if she gets the word out, the buyer will return the money.

Oops!!!

D.C. Tries Cash as a Motivator In School:

For years, school officials have used detention, remedial classes, summer school and suspensions to turn around poorly behaved, underachieving middle school students, with little results. Now they are introducing a program that will pay students up to $100 per month for displaying good behavior.

Beginning in October, 3,000 students at 14 middle schools will be eligible to earn up to 50 points per month and be paid $2 per point for attending class regularly and on time, turning in homework, displaying manners and earning high marks. A maximum of $2.7 million has been set aside for the program, and the money students earn will be deposited every two weeks into bank accounts the system plans to open for them.

Holy cow! Where was this program when I was in school? I could have funded my college education this way! ;-)

Comments

[Rick]

This is just great. Take a failed educational system that already costs us a boat load of money and start giving more money away to encourage students (I use the term loosely in the case of the group this program is targeting) to behave properly. What happened to good old public humiliation and capital punishment? Act out in class and get spanked in front of your peers. Don't make the grade? Get held back as your peers move on. Having two kids of my own I can tell you that a little embarrassment goes a long way. More money is NOT the answer.

[Pauline]

That's awful, but why didn't the husband put it somewhere safe, like a high interest rate savings account??

[Angie]

Why not use that amount of money to hire more teachers (or pay teachers more to put up with the grief) ultimately allowing smaller classroom sizes. Or supplies?

[Kevin]

The guy who bought the DVD probably opened the case to look for scratches, saw the cash inside and paid for it as fast as he could.

[Stephanie]

Oh man, that was something that always seemed weird for me...that kids would get money for getting Bs and Cs, and I got nothing for getting As!

I guess whatever works...

[Jenny]

Rick: DCPS has a lot of money. That's not why the system is failing. As for holding kids back, considering that the graduation rate hovers below 60% I don't think that's going to do much, do you?

The new chancellor of DC schools, Michelle Rhee, is doing some interesting and gutsy things to try to turn DCPS around. Like firing teachers, and revamping their union agreements so they get paid for doing a good job rather than being there a long time. It's not just a novel idea for DC - it's a novel idea for education in general, and I hope it works.

All that said, I don't know whether this new incentive system will work. It should get more kids in class, which is half the battle (the level of parental involvement in DC is atrocious). Unfortunately, the bank accounts will be accessible by debit card so the kids will probably spend it as quickly as they earn it. I think a better system would be a savings account they can't access until they graduate.