Question

Imagine Washington State is considering implementing a program that pays
monetary awards to families when their high school age children meet certain goals (for
example, school attendance, achievement on standardized tests, receiving regular
dental checkups, and receiving flu shots). WSIPP has been asked by the state legislature
to assess whether the state should adopt this policy.
a. Name three potential secondary impacts that WSIPP might consider in evaluating the
policy.
b. Indicate how WSIPP might go about making predictions of one of these impacts and
then monetize them.

Answer 1

a. In this case, the Washington State is officially considering to implement a program or an administrative policy measure to provide monetary or financial awards to the deserving high school students based on certain predefined objectives or parameters such as regular school attendance, dental checkups, flu shot frequencies, performance on standardized tests, etc. Now, from a practical perspective, it can be reasonably assumed that as most of the high school students are not financially independent or are not the main decision-makers in their respective households, the financial reward that they receive would be obtained by their parents or relatively adult members of the households. This could essentially imply that the financial reward that was primarily intended to help the high school students to satisfactorily meet the concerned goals or objectives could be used for other purposes to serve the financial needs and demands of the respective households. In this context, it needs to be considered that the other household members might have an incentive or motivation to use the financial assistance of the students for personal household and other purposes. Furthermore, if the lump sum state financial reward or assistance is provided directly to the deserving or qualified students, then the students would have personal incentives to use the money provided to them for personal expenses and even more concerningly, it could also be used for various undesirable purposes such as expenditure on drugs, alcohol, personal recreation, etc. which are some of the major social issues associated with the high students. This possibility would again jeopardize the main goals or objectives of the state financial assistance for high school students. Additionally, the effectiveness of the state-sponsored financial assistance for the high school students depends on the availability and development of proper infrastructural facilities and resources to meet the desired objectives or goals of this particular state program or policy. Therefore, it is imperative that the state legislature or the WISPP emphasize ensuring sufficient number of medical camps and centers for student health checkups both within and outside the high schools and providence of private and state-sponsored test preparation centers, to facilitate the fulfillment of the desired goals or objectives of the financial assistance program for the high school students within the state.

b. Now, in this context, the state legislator or the WISPP can primarily conduct a comprehensive preliminary empirical survey on the financial and medical conditions of the families of the high school students in the state to ascertain the urgency or necessity of the concerned program or policy. This would provide a general overview of the financial conditions of the families or households of the concerned students in order to have clarity on the appropriation or distribution of the funds to the respective families and how they will be used subsequently. If the average household income of the families or households of the students appears to be considerably low then it would be justified and prudent for the state legislator or the WISPP to provide a concession or reduction on the overall periodic academic fees paid by the students or their families in order to avoid any misutilization of the funds provided to the students under the concerned program or policy. As lump-sum cash transfer would either directly reach the family members or adult members of the student households or to the students themselves thereby increasing the possibility or misutilization or misappropriation of the student assistance program or policy again jeopardizing its desired goals or objectives. Hence, in order to monetize the student assistance program or policy, it is essential for the WISPP and the state legislation to initially generally understand the financial situations of the high school students and their families or households.