Money for Motivation?

Americans may be ready to pay students to get them back into school

Nearly 20 years ago, Harvard economist Roland Fryer tested a simple but bold idea: Could paying students help them show up, put in more effort, and learn more? His school-based experiments revealed important observations — paying for regular, consistent actions like reading books, attending class, and “intrinsic motivation” appeared to work well in some instances, but paying for outcomes like standardized test scores proved ineffective.

Late last year I was listening to a 2022 EconTalk podcast where Russ Roberts interviewed Fryer about his career, his research, and his views on education reform. It made me think, chronic absenteeism is a big problem today, maybe we could pay students to get them back intro school.

Chronic absenteeism in K-12 education has become a crisis since the pandemic. AEI’s Nat Malkus reported that chronic absenteeism stood at 26 percent in the 2022–23 school year, observing the most recent publicly available data. And just a couple weeks ago in a policy brief, Attendance Works noted: “A majority of schools (compared to less than a quarter before the pandemic) experience 20% or higher levels of chronic absence.” Daily school attendance in America still has a long way to go just to return to pre-pandemic numbers.

So that is the problem. Is paying students the solution? In early 2024, Aaron Churchill of the Fordham Institute wrote an insightful post on this topic, reviewing some past research (including Fryer’s) on cash incentives in K-12 education while spotlighting a proposal that was being debated at the time in the Ohio legislature.

We here at EdChoice do polling, so we decided to add some questions about offering financial incentives to our monthly EdChoice/Morning Consult tracking poll to see what the general public and K-12 parents think about offering financial incentives to encourage students to show up to school.

The findings suggest widespread openness to this approach, which could have implications for future policy conversations.

The Public – And Especially Parents – Are More Open Than You Might Think

Roughly 8 out 10 Americans say giving students financial rewards would have at least some positive impact on school attendance (82 percent) and academic performance (79 percent). Parents are even more likely to see the value of incentives – 88 percent believe rewards could help keep kids in school and learning day to day.

With absenteeism still nearly double pre-pandemic levels, these numbers suggest many Americans see financial incentives as worth trying when traditional approaches appear to be lackluster or ineffective.

Americans draw some distinctions when asked about specific reward approaches. K-12 school parents do as well. But more importantly, parents’ levels of support are much higher than the rest of the general public:

• 72% of parents support paying students for improving their grades (vs. 63% Public support)
• 70% of parents support rewards for consistent attendance (vs. 60% Public support)
• Parent support drops to 66% for high standardized test scores (vs. 57% Public support)
• 62% percent for reading a certain number of articles, essays, or books (vs. 47% Public support)
• 56% of parents back rewards for extracurricular activities (vs. 43% Public support)

Where Public Opinion Meets Research and Real-World Experiences

Financial incentives aren’t a new or untried concept in American public policy. Health programs like Indiana’s Medicaid ‘My Health Pays’ offer grocery-prepaid cards for completed checkups, and providers like CareSource have similar gift card incentives for well‑child visits. Within K-12 education some school districts are testing rewards for attendance too. Charleston County, SC, piloted a $25/week debit‑card incentive for perfect attendance. Detroit Public Schools just re-committed to giving students $200 in gift cards every two weeks for perfect attendance.

Public support is encouraging, but the implementation details matter. Fryer’s research and subsequent studies suggest that simple rewards for small, daily habits like reading a book or turning in homework may work best. Paying for broad performance measures, like standardized test scores, rarely or insufficiently moves the needle.

How much incentives help with school attendance depends on whether we see showing up as a clear, daily habit and action — like reading a book or turning in homework — or something that’s more complex. If it’s the former, then paying students might be a tool for tackling chronic absenteeism. If it’s the latter, financial incentives alone are likely to fall short. Our polling shows many Americans believe a simple financial reward could help kids show up to school more often. It’s an idea worth watching, especially as schools keep looking for ways to bring students back and keep them motivated and on track.

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About the EdChoice/Morning Consult polling used for this post: The survey data come from the EdChoice/Morning Consult Public Opinion Tracker Poll, March 6-9, 2025, with N=2,254 U.S. adults and N=1,296 K-12 school parents (including an oversample of N=876) responding to that month’s survey. Full crosstabs are available here and here.

This blog was originally featured on our Substack.