Detroit public schools have an absolutely hideous rate of chronic absenteeism. Their solution? Pay kids to show up.
Page A6From§Eachthe early evening edition — 31 August 2026
Detroit schools pay students to show up as Times Square police shoot stabbing suspect
Detroit Public Schools offer up to $1,000 for student attendance, while Times Square sees a violent knife attack followed by a fatal police shooting and a public warning to avoid the area. The receipts show two sides of public intervention: one pays for presence, the other pays for protection. The ledger for Detroit is cash out; the ledger for Times Square is caution, cordons, and a loss tallied in headlines. The connection is the stakes: the classroom is a site for retention, the street is a site for survival. Both institutions ask for engagement, both pay the cost in different currencies. The lesson is written on the check and the chalkboard: show up, get paid, or stay away. The stakes are literal, and the receipt is the headline.
“Detroit schools hand out cash for attendance, while Times Square turns into a shooting scene over a knife attack. They say the lesson is in the classroom, but the real curriculum is survival—show up, get paid, or dodge the news.”
“Paying kids to attend school is just incentivizing education. The Times Square incident is unfortunate, but it’s isolated. These aren’t connected, except perhaps in the sense that both are about public safety and engagement—did I say that?”
The receipts
The NYPD urged the public to avoid West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue in Times Square as officers investigated the the shooting incident.
The conditions of the victims and the suspect weren’t immediately known.
A knife-wielding woman allegedly stabbed two people in Times Square Monday before advancing on NYPD officers, who deployed a Taser and then opened fire.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.