It looks suspiciously like your standard "to do" list.
1. Pay rent on time
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
2. Volunteer at church
3. Keep a job for three months.
For poor families on Chicago's Near West Side, it's also a potential rewards list.
Over three years, 260 adults and children who have mastered such tasks have earned $56,000 worth of new clothes, bikes, summer camp tuition, televisions, house supplies and cash for rent.
Welcome to the latest front in the war against poverty: paying people to do the right thing.
"This is getting my kids ready for the real world, where they can reward themselves with a check from a job," said Evette Clark.
Over two years, grades for her five school-age children have shot up, earning them 1,250 points. Each point is worth a dollar, to be redeemed for gift cards or rent and utility payments.
"This is a push in the right direction," said Clark.
Chicago's small program, based at a new Chicago Housing Authority mixed-income community near the United Center, is one of the first of its kind in the United States.
This fall, New York City is taking it to the next level, starting the first large-scale cash rewards program in the United States.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg's privately financed program will pay 2,500 poor families up to $5,000 a year to keep a job, attend parent-teacher conferences and go to regular medical checkups. Another 9,000 kids who score well on standardized tests will also earn cash.
Some critics are aghast, saying society shouldn't pay poor people to meet their basic obligations.
"Introducing cash rewards for conduct that is simply part of what it means to be a conscientious parent or student is no way to inculcate a more functional value system," Heather Mac Donald, a contributing editor for a journal at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute, wrote recently in the Weekly Standard.
"I can see how this could rub people the wrong way, but I'm honestly amazed at what we spend in this country and don't get results," said Toby Herr, who created the rewards program funded by the MacArthur Foundation and others.
Herr directs a nationally recognized employment program, Project Match.
"So I'm pretty pragmatic," she said. "If kids are getting to school on time, parents are doing more than they were doing, if things are looking up, then why not?"
Herr's program hasn't been evaluated, but the anecdotal evidence is promising. Nearly 60 percent of the 440 people who set goals over the last three years have met at least one. Among heads of the households, it's nearly 80 percent.
Signing up for a GED high school equivalency class gets you five points. Getting that GED brings home 50 points.
And, experts note, it's not just the individuals who benefit.
"If you ask people the question: should we pay people $600 to graduate high school, that will likely elicit a negative response," said Jeffrey Grogger, a University of Chicago professor of urban policy. "If you tell them graduating high school greatly reduces the odds that we'll spend $35,000 a year down the line for prison, I think the answer would be different."
But what about the larger causes of poverty, a colleague asks?
"This assumes they're poor because of what they're not doing, rather than acknowledging inequalities based on education, employment and housing," said Evelyn Brodkin, a U. of C. political scientist.
For now, Evette Clark and others in Chicago's program are sure of one thing: The rewards work for them. They know some look askance at cash rewards, but they insist the payoff will come.
"They'll continue doing good," Clark said of her children. "The program is designed to get you on your feet, and once you're there, there's no reason to fall back."
