COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — A bill to create a pilot program to test the effectiveness of paying students to go to school is sparking controversy and may already be stalled after its first hearing.

House Bill 348 is a bipartisan effort sponsored by Representatives Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) and Majority Floor Leader Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati).

 “We need something that shifts our culture back into one of attendance and graduation,” Isaacsohn said.

“The degree to which truancy has become a bigger problem post-pandemic than it was pre-pandemic demands that we start doing something about it,” Seitz said.

The bill allocates $1.5 million over two years to test whether paying kids to go to school increases attendance and bolsters graduation rates.

“If it works, one of the things it will prove is that it is actually a cost-saving effort if we invest in the front end in preventative measures like this,” Isaacsohn said.

Isaacsohn said that across the state, since the pandemic, chronic absenteeism has jumped from 11% to 29% among kindergarteners, and from 15% to 32% among ninth graders, with higher numbers in low-income rural and urban districts. He said this is not uniquely an Ohio or even United States problem.

“This is happening all over the world in places that had long periods of remote learning during the pandemic,” Isaacsohn said.

Truancy in Ohio is defined by any student who is absent, without a legitimate excuse, for 30 or more consecutive hours, 42 or more hours in a month, or 72 hours in a school year.

If the bill passes, Ohio schools would not be the first to incentivize students with cash. For example, a school in Michigan has been doing so for more than a decade, mostly funded by local businessmen, rather the proposed state dollars in Ohio. And in Brazil, a similar incentivization program increased attendance by 20%. Still, despite other states and countries using this method, some said they are not convinced.

“I don’t see this as rewarding good behavior; I see this as rewarding bad behavior and encouraging the entitlement mentality,” Rep. Beth Lear (R-Galena) said.

 “Why are we going to pay kids to follow the law?” Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) said. “We have laws in place that say you cannot skip school, you cannot be truant, you can be criminally charged and penalized.”

If the bill passes, school districts would apply to the Department of Education and Workforce (DEW) to be part of the pilot program. The school would need to be in the bottom 20% of attendance or graduation rates, depending on which program they are applying to. DEW would then need to select four schools to receive the cash incentives, of which at least one must be an urban district and one a rural district. The DEW would also select four schools as a control group.

President of the Ohio Education Association Scott DiMauro said while the bill is a good conversation starter, “root causes” of chronic absenteeism need to be addressed.

“A lot of times, it’s because they don’t have food, they don’t have shelter, they don’t have clothing, they don’t have a ride to school,” DiMauro said. “This is a problem that requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.”

The bill’s sponsors agree that more work will need to go into addressing the issue.

“The long-term fix is not using financial invectives to get parents or students to attend school graduate on time,” Isaacsohn said. “That is a short-term effort to get us back into the culture of attendance and graduation.”

“We didn’t claim to have a magic bullet here,” Seitz said. “What we said is this has been successful in other countries and in other places, so why not pilot it here to see if it works.”

DiMauro said the state cannot address this one issue without looking at the “big picture of school funding in Ohio.”

“We all have to roll up our sleeves and work together, first to prevent absenteeism in the first place and then to have very strategic targeted approaches when it becomes a problem,” DiMauro said.

Isaacsohn agrees and the long-term solution includes ensuring that schools are fully funded to motivate all school staff, teachers and students.

“I would never do anything to take away from that goal,” Isaacsohn said.

But Williams said he worries this legislation would set an unintended precedent.

“Is this going to set a precedent for our young kids, as young as kindergarten, that we are going pay you to abide by the laws moving forward?” he said. “Are we going to get to the point where we are paying rapists not to rape?”

Seitz and Isaacsohn both describe the bill as “modest” in terms of spending and said it is a good way to test whether it will work.

“If you want to improve truancy by hiring more truancy officers and having more court hearings, I will submit to you that that’s vastly more expensive than what we’re talking about doing,” Seitz said.

“Love or hate this bill, I am glad we are having this conversation because it focuses us on the right issues,” Isaacsohn said. “This is the conversation we should be having as policymakers and citizens.”

The chair of the House Primary and Secondary Education Committee, where the bill is being heard, said that the bill will not have any more hearings in his committee, as there is not enough support among Republican committee members.

“It seems to me that you should at least offer the opportunity to have a hearing,” Seitz said.

The bill may not be fully off the table yet as the Speaker of the Ohio House could re-refer it to a different committee.