See, it’s no longer enough to provide free education to children. Now you have to pay those children significant amounts of money to do what they’re supposed to do in order to utilize that free education. What’s next, paying people to go on welfare?

The city of Camden will be paying almost 70 high school students $100 each to go to school in the first three weeks of the year.

Funded by a grant that must be used by Sept. 30, the city is trying to fight truancy with a new program called I Can End Truancy (ICE-T), reports the Inquirer.

To receive the promised $100, each of the 66 targeted students must attend classes as well as conflict-resolution and anger-management workshops until Sept. 30.

The city is going to pay them — using tax dollars — to attend the school they’re attending for free and attending self-improvement workshops they’re also attending for free.

And no one stopped for a moment and wondered if this was a stupid idea.

Tina Korbe writes:

Wish my high school would have done this … I would have been rich.

Me too. See, I know it’s an outdated idea, but my parents were grateful enough for the free education that they made sure I played by the rules and fulfilled our end of the bargain. We didn’t have to be paid to take advantage of the free education taxpayers were kind enough to provide.

Korbe also notes:

The students will receive the cash three weeks into the school year simply because the city has to spend the grant money by Sept. 30 or risk not receiving the grant next year. (The grant comes from the state Department of Criminal Justice.) That means the city has no real leverage after Sept. 30 to ensure the high schoolers in the program actually attend class — other than a pledge the students will fill out upon completion of the program.

So rather than save taxpayers money in these tough fiscal times, the city has decided to blow the cash in order to make sure next year’s grant is just as big. And that means it’s time to pay chronically truant students to take advantage of what’s being handed to them on a silver platter.

Imagine telling some child in the third world that he or she will receive free education through high school, and then potentially a free ride college tuition. No work — just free education. Do you think for even a second you would have to pay that child to attend school? Of course not.

But we have become such an ungrateful, perspective-lacking society that feels entitled to everything, that now we’re even paying students to receive an education that costs them nothing. That is the point at which we have arrived. Do you like this picture, America? Do you like looking in the mirror and seeing this dynamic coming back at you?