A public charter school in Washington DC has launched a radical new programme to tackle a deepening attendance crisis: paying pupils to come to class.
A Financial Incentive for Education
Digital Pioneers Academy (DPA), a taxpayer-funded charter school in southeast DC, has selected 40 of its senior students to receive $50 (approximately £40) every week. The payments will continue for 40 weeks, meaning each participating student could earn a total of $2,000 by the end of the academic year. The initiative is a direct response to alarmingly high rates of chronic absenteeism plaguing the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) system.
An annual DCPS report revealed that 38.2 percent of students were chronically absent during the 2024 to 2025 school year. A pupil is defined as chronically absent if they miss 10 percent or more of the school year. The situation is even more severe in some high schools, where the superintendent's office found that three out of every four students meet this troubling criteria.
Student Voices and Programme Backing
Mashea Ashton, CEO of Digital Pioneers Academy, explained the thinking behind the scheme to NBC Washington. "Post-pandemic, it's been a struggle for everyone to get kids back into school," she said. "So we put a lot of incentives, work hard, play hard, attendance matters." Ashton believes the financial support empowers students, creating a tangible link between consistent attendance and having more choices in life.
The students involved are already putting the money to practical use, often to support their families. Jada Faulkner told reporters she viewed the payment "as an opportunity" and a "gift," using it to buy Thanksgiving food and contribute to siblings' needs. Another student, Fred McRoy, is saving for senior-year activities and hopes to buy his mother a Christmas present.
The programme is run in partnership with The $50 Study and the Rooted School Foundation, which provided the funding. Jonathan Johnson, founder of the Rooted School Foundation, called the scheme "a fundamental reimagining of how we address opportunity gaps." He argued it proves a simple principle: "when you remove financial barriers for young people through direct, unconditional support, you create measurable impact." He described it not as a pilot but as a "blueprint" for cities to make data-driven progress on seemingly intractable problems.
Criticism and Controversy
However, the unconventional approach has attracted significant criticism from some quarters. Detractors have taken to social media platform X to voice their concerns, labelling it a "liberal entitlement program" where pupils are "paid just to show up" without having to achieve academically.
One critic remarked that the $50 weekly sum was "less than minimum wage for clowning around," while another stated it was "backwards" to reward poor attendance rather than push underperforming students. A fourth simply called the scheme "insane," arguing it rewards the worst behaviour.
Despite the backlash, DPA and its partners are pushing forward with the initiative, viewing it as a necessary and innovative intervention to address a critical barrier to education in the post-pandemic era. The debate it has sparked highlights the ongoing global challenge of re-engaging students and the extreme measures some institutions are willing to consider.
