keith_v
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http://www.nypost.com/seven/09132007/news/regionalnews/this_dad_is_paid_if_his_kids_g.htm
"September 13, 2007 -- For Wayne Logan, a single father of two, being selected for the city's experimental cash-rewards program for the poor was like hitting the lottery.
"I'm happy. I'm grateful," he declared, sounding somewhat amazed at his good fortune.
"To get paid to do things I'm doing anyway is a welcome feeling."
Logan, 49, was among the first enrollees in a daring $50 million pilot project launched by Mayor Bloomberg with private funds to pay poor families as much as $5,000 a year simply to do the right thing.
A child getting a library card is worth $50.
A student who passes a standardized math or English exam is eligible to get a $300 payoff for each.
Complete two dental visits a year? That's $100 in y
our pocket.
Logan insisted that almost all the 28 activities prescribed by the city are already on his checklist.
He was recertified for Medicaid (worth $40), gets an annual checkup ($200), and recently took his son to the dentist.
Good grades for his kids - a passing grade on a Regents test would produce a $600 windfall - seem in the offing.
"My kids do good in school," said Logan, who puts his annual income at under $20,000.
"To get paid is an extra added incentive."
But the Bronx father, who's had a hard time making ends meet as a part-time office-machine repairer, admitted he hasn't been diligent when it comes to parent-teacher conferences.
Now, he said, "It might motivate me" since the city would give him $25 to attend. Seconds later, he's more certain: "It's going to motivate me."
That's just what city officials are hoping for - even though several other participants in the program also said there's not much behavior they plan to change.
"Basically, I do all that," said Cheryl Nicks, 46, a mother of three, referring to the city's "activity list."
Nicks did make one change, however. She waited a few weeks to take one son to a physical - since a doctor's visit before Sept. 1 wouldn't have qualified for the reward.
Bloomberg conceded the outcome of the two-year pilot project is uncertain, even while similar programs pioneered by Mexico have been judged successful.
"Different amounts of money have different impacts," he said. "There are a lot of social services available here that, my understanding is, are not really available to people in Mexico."
The mayor boasted at a press conference yesterday at the Groundwork social-services center in East New York, Brooklyn, that the city has already made some inroads, by signing up 170 families for bank accounts at eight institutions that waived their usual fees.
Each family received $50 and an ATM card.
Surprisingly, only 3,000 of the 5,100 families selected for the program signed up by Sept. 1, leading officials to extend the deadline by a month.
Half of the families will be in a control group that doesn't receive benefits.
Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said some families in the six neighborhoods picked for the program "found it hard to believe it's real" and didn't enroll. But she said officials intend to track down the non-responders because "we want to see how incentives work in those hard-to-engage households and those who are the poorest of the poor." "
It's good to see that a decent person making an honest living can possibly earn a little more, but will all the people who may eligible for this program(should it actually go into motion) really deserve it?
"September 13, 2007 -- For Wayne Logan, a single father of two, being selected for the city's experimental cash-rewards program for the poor was like hitting the lottery.
"I'm happy. I'm grateful," he declared, sounding somewhat amazed at his good fortune.
"To get paid to do things I'm doing anyway is a welcome feeling."
Logan, 49, was among the first enrollees in a daring $50 million pilot project launched by Mayor Bloomberg with private funds to pay poor families as much as $5,000 a year simply to do the right thing.
A child getting a library card is worth $50.
A student who passes a standardized math or English exam is eligible to get a $300 payoff for each.
Complete two dental visits a year? That's $100 in y
our pocket.
Logan insisted that almost all the 28 activities prescribed by the city are already on his checklist.
He was recertified for Medicaid (worth $40), gets an annual checkup ($200), and recently took his son to the dentist.
Good grades for his kids - a passing grade on a Regents test would produce a $600 windfall - seem in the offing.
"My kids do good in school," said Logan, who puts his annual income at under $20,000.
"To get paid is an extra added incentive."
But the Bronx father, who's had a hard time making ends meet as a part-time office-machine repairer, admitted he hasn't been diligent when it comes to parent-teacher conferences.
Now, he said, "It might motivate me" since the city would give him $25 to attend. Seconds later, he's more certain: "It's going to motivate me."
That's just what city officials are hoping for - even though several other participants in the program also said there's not much behavior they plan to change.
"Basically, I do all that," said Cheryl Nicks, 46, a mother of three, referring to the city's "activity list."
Nicks did make one change, however. She waited a few weeks to take one son to a physical - since a doctor's visit before Sept. 1 wouldn't have qualified for the reward.
Bloomberg conceded the outcome of the two-year pilot project is uncertain, even while similar programs pioneered by Mexico have been judged successful.
"Different amounts of money have different impacts," he said. "There are a lot of social services available here that, my understanding is, are not really available to people in Mexico."
The mayor boasted at a press conference yesterday at the Groundwork social-services center in East New York, Brooklyn, that the city has already made some inroads, by signing up 170 families for bank accounts at eight institutions that waived their usual fees.
Each family received $50 and an ATM card.
Surprisingly, only 3,000 of the 5,100 families selected for the program signed up by Sept. 1, leading officials to extend the deadline by a month.
Half of the families will be in a control group that doesn't receive benefits.
Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs said some families in the six neighborhoods picked for the program "found it hard to believe it's real" and didn't enroll. But she said officials intend to track down the non-responders because "we want to see how incentives work in those hard-to-engage households and those who are the poorest of the poor." "
It's good to see that a decent person making an honest living can possibly earn a little more, but will all the people who may eligible for this program(should it actually go into motion) really deserve it?
I got a 92 on an English test.
