Education has become so widespread in America that missing out on it leaves you miles behind. Today, a student skipping school means significantly harming one’s future. Currently, a staggering 75% of state prisoners are high school dropouts, and nearly 30% of high school dropouts are unemployed (National). 

Not only is dropping out of school entirely detrimental, but so is missing out on part of school. A study in the Journal of School Psychology found that chronic absenteeism, missing at least 10% of the school year, is directly linked with worse grades, lower test scores, higher drug usage rates, and a 18% lower chance of graduating high school (Oxford). 

Absenteeism is not rare; in fact, it is widespread across the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Education, almost 28% of high school students in the U.S. are chronically absent (Chronic). Chronic absenteeism is also particularly prevalent among certain demographics. A staggering 46% of American Indians and Pacific Islanders are chronically absent. Absenteeism is also extremely common in Illinois and at ETHS. An estimated 30% of students in Illinois are chronically absent, and 21% are at ETHS (Chronic ETHS). 

Countless different approaches have been attempted to solve absenteeism, yet little progress has been made. However, Hope is not lost; there is one approach that has seen little traction yet has massive potential, and it is incentives. 

So what are incentives? Incentives are what drive all human behavior; they are what motivate humans to do things. Every human action is an attempt to get pleasure or avoid pain. For example, you eat candy because it tastes good, or you wear thick clothes to avoid being cold. Now, what economists call incentives are simply manufactured ways of providing pleasure or pain. For example, employers pay their employees so that they will work, or your teachers offer you a better grade if you do your homework, so that you will learn. There are many different forms of incentives, but the most direct form of incentive is a monetary one, a situation in which someone is offered money to do something. 

A common misconception about incentives is that they are ineffective at solving problems with underlying issues. Chronic absenteeism is one of these problems. Students are often chronically absent due to underlying reasons such as lack of transportation, economic instability, and negative school experiences, among others. However, just because chronic absenteeism is caused by deep-rooted problems does not mean that incentives can not be an effective solution. University of Chicago Economist Steven D Levvitt notoriously wrote in his book Freakonomics, “An incentive is a bullet, a key: an often tiny object with astonishing power to change a situation.” Often, the appeal of monetary incentives motivates students to overcome their underlying obstacles and can even lead to students solving them. 

This has been empirically proven. In 1998, Mexico launched PROGRESA, a massive program aimed at improving the poorest and most disadvantaged communities across the country. One of the techniques used was to offer monetary incentives in return for school attendance. The PROGRESA program was found to be effective; it increased both attendance and the likelihood of enrollment in further education. 

So, what would a system that incentivizes school attendance look like? This system happens to already exist, and it is called Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding. ADA funding works by multiplying the per student funding number by the average number of students present daily, as opposed to total enrollment. This creates a structure where schools receive are directly incentived to increase their attendance figures. With this incentive, schools will dedicate more resources and efforts towards increasing attendance. 

This school-based incentives system also enables student-level incentives. The possibility of increased funding would provide the resources to fund student level incetives programs. A school could realistically generate money by paying kids to go to school. If the amount a school pays students to attend school is less than the amount they make in funding for increasing their attendance, they would make a profit. 

ADA funding is not purely theoretical; in fact, it is currently being used in six states and has been proven to be effective. A pilot study investigating the effectiveness of ADA funding was conducted by the California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor. The pilot study offered schools 1.5% more funding for a 3% or above increase in attendance (Assessing). The report found this policy to be extremely effective, increasing attendance by over 5% on average. 

Incredibly, switching to ADA funding would not increase costs at all and, in fact, would likely save states money. The incentives ADA funding creates are not from any additional money being spent; instead, it simply comes from redistributing funding. Some schools with high attendance will receive more funding than they would with enrollment-based funding, but this will be balanced out by schools with low attendance receiving less money. In fact, a recent study examining the effects of ADA funding found that it actually saves California over six billion dollars per year. 

If ADA funding could increase attendance at no additional cost, why is it not being done already? The largest reason against it is that it is often viewed as unfair. Because absenteeism is often correlated with certain demographics and underprivileged populations, it is believed that these groups will be discriminated against. However, this is a misconception and could easily be addressed when instituting an ADA funding system. Indeed, a model that awards funding strictly based on school attendance would lead to unfair results, but no such model should be established. Instead, a model should be instituted that accounts for both the needs of students and the attendance numbers. For example, average daily attendance can be multiplied by a number that differs by school based on their calculated needs. 

Given the current dismal state of attendance across America and in Illinois in particular, a change is urgently needed. ADA, a technique that has been empirically proven to be effective, must be implemented in Illinois immediately. With the effectiveness of ADA found in the pilot study, an exciting future is possible, one where nearly 300,000 additional students are no longer chronically absent.