You cost your school $15,000 if you're absent on the first Wednesday of October
why did nobody ever tell me abt this when I was in hs...
If you live in one of the green states, you can take control of $7,500-$15,000 of the budget FOR YOURSELF or $50-100 EVERY TIME YOU SHOW UP.
| State | Funding Method |
|---|
If not, anyone can get $100k of the budget in your pocket with a different strategy.
You have control over whether you show up that day. Don't go out of your way to bankrupt your school. That would be dumb.
If there’s anything you want to change about school, and you live in one of those states, you can ask for it in exchange for showing up. That can be anything from new basketballs in the gym and new urinal dividers in the bathroom all the way up to a new school social worker or WAY better food for lunch.
Michigan + Delaware Email Template
Subject: Can you make sure my voice is heard on count day?
Dear [principal's name],
I've been anxious about sending this email - I'm afraid to come off as rude or judgmental - so thank you for taking the time to read.
When I don't show up to a class, it's usually because I'm [tired/unsafe/anxious/hungry]. Most days, I face this alone.
But on [your count date], whether I show up matters.
Please [your solution to your stressor: buy new basketballs for the gym, add a salad bar to the cafeteria, repair the disgusting bathrooms, work with students and staff to make English classes more engaging, start conversations with teachers who students frequently report being mistreated by]. It's worth a fraction of the funding my attendance brings the school and will make this a better place.
With hope and gratitude,
[Your Name]
Every other green state's email template
Subject: Student with an idea to increase attendance - and funding!
Dear [principal's name],
I've been anxious about sending this email - I'm afraid to come off as rude or judgmental - so thank you for taking the time to read.
When I don't show up to a class, it's usually because I'm [tired/unsafe/anxious/hungry]. Most days, I face this alone.
But living in a state funded through average daily student attendance, whether I show up matters.
Please [your solution to your stressor: buy new basketballs for the gym, add a salad bar to the cafeteria, repair the disgusting bathrooms, work with students and staff to make English classes more engaging, start conversations with teachers who students frequently report being mistreated by]. More students will show up as a result, so the change will make you more money than it costs.
With hope and gratitude,
[Your Name]
See exactly how much you cost your school with this calculator
Control $100k of the budget
So… cutting class costs your school money, even if you’re not in one of those states, and you’re leaving because you’re bored or tired or angry or unsafe, right?
So instead of being angry about school over nothing, why not turn it into a protest, or turn it into a conversation with your principal… who stands to make $100k more if students stay in school.
Let me explain. The average principal wants to be a superintendent. That would be a $50k annual salary bump
The average principal is 49 years old, so they’ll be working for around 16 more years until they retire.
$50k extra for 16 years equals $800k, or over over a million dollars in some states.
And… what gets a principal promoted? Yep, ATTENDANCE. Student attendance is around 10-15% of a school’s quality assessment, the main factor in a principal’s promotion, meaning whether students show up is responsible for about $80-120k of a principal’s net worth.
So… people care if you show up. Start a conversation promising to show up more if whatever sucks most about school changes. Get your friends involved. If you get half of the students who don’t show up a lot to come to the bargaining table, you’re coming to the table with forty to sixty thousand dollars of leverage.
First of all, don’t threaten your principal. start a conversation with them like this:
Subject: Can we talk about ways to help me show up more to class?
Dear [principal's name],
I've been anxious about sending this email - I'm afraid to come off as rude or judgmental - so thank you for taking the time to read.
When I don't show up to a class, it's usually because I'm [tired/unsafe/anxious/hungry]. Most days, I face this alone.
But whether I show up matters for school quality assessments, funding, and maybe increasing student attendance would be a great milestone for your career!
Please [your solution to your stressor: buy new basketballs for the gym, add a salad bar to the cafeteria, repair the disgusting bathrooms, work with students and staff to make English classes more engaging, start conversations with teachers who students frequently report being mistreated by].
[I/we] commit to showing up more if this change is made, and these changes would cost only a fraction of the value [my/our] attendance would bring to the school.
With hope and gratitude,
[Your Name]
if your mom is gonna FREAK, use this auto-emailer form, our nonprofit will send an explainer to your mom on why this is important.
Not sure what's wrong with class, or don't think there's anything you could change? Check out this page for strict teachers and this page for nice ones, and this page for an example of changing curriculum and bad policy.
How does funding work?
Most of the money goes to teacher salaries and building maintenance, and you’re kind of stuck with your teachers and your building. Firing teachers is really hard and moving buildings is really expensive, so even if your school goes from 5,000 to 4,500 students over a year—maybe you had a big senior class and the new freshman class is small—your costs won’t change much, but your school could lose 10% of its funding: for a school that size, around 7.5 million dollars.
What?!
School budgets are agreed on once a year, and they’re not always flexible: unexpected enrollment changes, unexpected costs, everything else that can go wrong when you’re spending $60 million a year… there… isn’t money for that.
There’s no perfect system to resolve this, and the current per-student-funding system is even pretty good in a lot of states, but the way some states count the number of students at a school makes that system even more broken.
Help make this page better! Contact guzovsky@princeton.edu or submit a pull request.