Detroit public schools are facing a chronic absenteeism problem that is nothing short of alarming. Yet the district’s response may be more troubling than the crisis itself: paying students to come to class.

Under a newly expanded incentive plan, middle school students could receive up to $500 a year in gift cards, while high schoolers could earn as much as $1,000 annually — simply for attending school.

District officials say the effort, called the “Perfect Attendance Pays” program, is meant to encourage students to show up. But critics see it as a desperate attempt to paper over a far deeper cultural and educational breakdown.

The message behind the initiative is deeply misguided: that basic attendance deserves a prize, and that meeting the lowest expectation should come with a reward.

The program has already been available to high school students for the past two school years. This month, the district announced that middle school students will now be eligible as well.

It’s an attempt to chip away at the daunting fact that a full 60.9% of students in the district were chronically absent as of the 2024-25 school year, meaning they missed at least 10% of school days.

For ten weeks between the new year and spring break, when the district’s historical data proves kids are especially unlikely to show up to class, a five-day week of perfect attendance is redeemable by high schoolers for a $100 gift card and $50 for middle schoolers per week for up to 10 weeks.

While high schoolers have been getting gift cards directly via email, middle schoolers’ parents would be handed the bonus. It’s a disturbing suggestion that parents themselves will effectively be bribed to get their kids to school.

During the 2024-25 school year, the district handed out an eye-watering $4 million to high schoolers in the form of Visa gift cards, according to Bridge Detroit. It’s just a small fraction of the district’s planned $1.1 billion budget for the upcoming year.

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The school district told The Post the initiative has “already been proven with our students and families to reduce chronic absenteeism,” noting rates in the high school dropped by seven percentage points in the first year of the program and then a further two during the second.

The district also emphasized the program isn’t directly funded by federal or state revenue but rather by “interest generated through District funds awaiting to be used for facility projects.”

A reasonable taxpayer would push back: where did those district funds come from in the first place, and how better could that interest be used than by paying kids to do the bare minimum?

They’d also be right to ask what message this sends to the sort of kids who are already inclined to miss huge chunks of the school year. Even if more of them do come to class, they’re not magically going to become engaged students.

While the district is right to argue that students who show up do better in school, there’s no way a kid who shows up of their own volition is interchangeable with a kid converting attendance into an income stream.

If anything, the teens making bank for ten weeks are going to see the school and its teachers as suckers who pay them for the favor of them showing up.

The real problem here is the emphasis on quantity over quality. The earnest kid who is sick and missed class won’t have a payday, but the girl who shows up and tunes out will.

$100 feels like a ton of money when you’re a teen, and Detroit is telling kids that they’re entitled to it, regardless of the level of their performance or the depth of learning.

For an already entitled generation, it’s about the most toxic message a school district could send.

A father of four from Utah died after he was hit by lightning while riding a jet ski off Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Steve Matheson, 47, was struck around 6.30pm Saturday near Fort De Soto Park in the Petersburg area.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said Matheson was rushed to a hospital following the lightning strike, but he later died from his injuries.

Robert Molleda, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, warned that the earliest lightning strikes in a storm can be especially dangerous because people may not realize how quickly conditions are deteriorating.

‘The storms in the summer develop very quickly. That first rumble of thunder might be too late,’ Molleda told USA TODAY.

Matheson’s family has created a GoFundMe fundraiser in support of his wife and children as they navigate their loss. April Beck, the organizer, has shared that the money is being raised to help bring his body back to Utah. 

The fundraiser message described him as ‘a wonderful man, devoted husband, and loving father.’ They mentioned how he adored his wife, Abbie and his four children he left behind. 

‘His family was his greatest joy, and he cherished every moment he was able to spend with them. He was the kind of husband and father who loved deeply, showed up fully, and made his family the center of his world,’ said the message. 

His loved ones have raised over $38,000 of their $100,000 goal as support continues to grow. 

One supporter commented: ‘We’ll miss you Steve, you’ll always be our football brother. ‘

Another said: ‘We love you so much, Steve & Abbie. I hope to have the strength to live like you. I miss you and will do all we can to help your family.’ 

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It marks the third deadly lightning strike in Florida in less than a week.

Kenya Glasgow, 31, and her two-year-old daughter were found lying on the sidewalk after being struck down in Margate city on August 23. 

Her husband Kameron said he was sitting in the car with their other daughter when he saw his wife hit by a flash of light. 

‘I got the actual aftershock from the ground. By the grace of God, I’m still here as well,’ Glasgow told the outlet. He described it as ‘the worst feeling in the world.’

Later that same day, a child was taken to a trauma center after they were struck by lightning near Boynton Beach. 

Matheson’s death is the 13th lightning death in the US this year, as reports have been scattered across multiple states. 

In May, Michael Aiden Vargas, 18, was killed while kayaking in the Blackwater River in Santa Rosa County. The high school senior was tossed out of his boat after a freak lightning strike. It took several dive teams over ten hours to find his missing body. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida has famously been known as the ‘lightning capital’ as it has recorded over 2,000 related injuries over the past 50 years. 

Although about 37 million bolts hit the ground in the US each year, the odds of being struck are less than one in a million. Victim data has shown that only 10 percent of such incidents are fatal. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research has found that the top three activities that lead to lightning-related deaths are boating, fishing and camping. 

Since the bolts are more likely to strike taller objects, activities such as jet-skiing on water can lead to a higher chance of exposure.

A Colorado family got a startling surprise one morning in July when they discovered a bear had wandered into their home and helped itself to breakfast in the kitchen.

Security camera video from inside the Colorado Springs house shows the bear making its way into the kitchen on July 21, where it began searching for food and grabbing a snack.

“I was getting ready in the morning and heard a bang. I asked my kids — 8, 6 and 3 years old — if they were all okay, and they were all upstairs playing,” Nerissa England told Storyful.

“I assumed it was a picture that had fallen off the wall, so my curious 8-year-old daughter, Zara Lee, went downstairs to investigate, and my husband followed to grab coffee,” England said. “She rounded the corner into our kitchen, and a bear was eating our trash right outside the kitchen door.”

The bear apparently walked into the home through a back door that was left open so that a breeze could come in amid the hot temperatures.

The animal then ate some Flintstones vitamins left on a table, dragged a trash can outside and began rummaging through it near the kitchen door, England said.

Zara Lee and her father reportedly managed to scare the bear away by opening the door and making noise.

“We will be keeping the door shut for a while until the local bears get the food they need and go into hibernation!” England told Storyful.

Bears have wandered into people’s homes across the United States in record numbers after a dry winter wiped out plants, grasses, berries and nuts that form around 90% of their diet, Reuters reported.

Their sense of smell has lured them to places with human food. This has led to record bear deaths in some states, as hundreds have been euthanized, run over, shot and even electrocuted as they interact with humans.