Now that school is back in session, everyone is reminded of why they dreaded it before. And all throughout high school, we have once said, or have known someone who has said, “Maybe I would like school if I got paid for it. Not much. Maybe just like a quarter an hour.” Today, my friends, we are doing the math. Everyone whip out your TI-84 calculators because we are about to crunch some serious numbers. 

Now, let us see; there are 23 elementary schools (Kindergarten through fifth grade), seven middle schools, and six high schools in Cherokee County. Each elementary school averages 800 students, middle school 1300, and high school 2100. Not to forget Cherokee County’s alternative schools, which both have 250 students each for a total of about 40,500 students enrolled in the county.  

Every Cherokee County school is in session for seven hours a day, every school day. There is a scheduled 180 day school year that students are in session, which totals to be 1,260 hours that students are in school per year. This is if the student has perfect attendance. According to Info.debgroup.com, the average student tends to miss four and a half school days a year. With this math, each student attends roughly 175.5 days of school, which totals to be 1,228.5 hours of school per year. 

With this math, all 40,500 Cherokee County students spend 49,754,250 hours in school. And with a pay of $0.25 an hour, each student receives roughly $307 a year.  

And this is before taxes! 

To do the math, Cherokee County would have to fork over $12,433,500 a year, just so everyone could have the slightest motivation to attend school.  

And let us not forget, teacher pay, custodial pay, and any operations and upkeep to schools that the Cherokee County district would have to provide.  

So in conclusion, paying every student a measly quarter and hour would bankrupt Cherokee County.  

I’m a senior. In on-level statistics. I know what I am talking about.