Cash for graduates: should students--and adults--get paid just to do the right thing? New York City is giving the idea a try.

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Should cash be used to spur students to do better on reading and math tests? Suzanne Windland, a parent in Queens, N.Y., doesn't think so. Windland's daughter, Alexandra, did well in school last year, but she doesn't want her getting $500 from the school for achievement.

Windland wants Alexandra to do well for all the timeless reasons--cultivate a love of learning and have greater opportunity in the future. She has at times bought her children gifts or taken them out for dinner when they brought home good report cards, but she does not believe in dangling rewards beforehand.

"It's like giving kids an allowance because they wake up every morning and brush their teeth and go off to school," says. "That's their job. That's what they're supposed to be doing."

But New York City is giving the idea a try with a two-pilot program called Opportunity NYC, based on a successful 10-year effort in Mexico that has been adopted 20 other countries. According to a World Bank report, programs, all of which focus on poor families, have had good results, including raising school attendance.

Under New York's privately financed plan, high school students from 5,000 poor families will receive $25 for obtaining a library card, $50 for taking the PSAT, and $400 for graduating from high school. Some elementary school students will receive between $100 and $500, depending on how well they do on 10 tests this school year. And Morn and Dad will be paid $25 for attending parent-teacher conferences.

LONG-TERM SAVINGS?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg plans to test other incentives for low-income adults, including $20 to $50 for maintaining health insurance and $100 to $200 per family member for preventive-health screenings.

From the city's perspective, the hope is that future savings-from lower health-care costs, graduates who get better jobs (and pay more in taxes), etc.--will more than offset the money it lays out now for the incentives.

But it's the cash-for-grades program that's getting the most attention--and criticism.

Some wonder how students who are not part of the program will react when they find out that other students are getting paid for good grades and they're not.

Sol Stern, who writes about education, believes the incentive money should be put aside for the students' college expenses, instead of paying it out as instant cash. One father is even more blunt: "The word bribe comes to mind," he says.

Joel Klein, chancellor the New York school system, responds to skeptics by arguing that no one has yet figured out how to get more poor children engaged in learning. Trumpeting the long-term benefits of education--the better jobs, higher living standards, and just the love of learning--hasn't worked. So why not try incentives?

"There are lots of kids who think education is not relevant to them, who think education is a waste of time," says Klein, who grew up in public housing. "Cash just might be the answer."

A thousand miles away, north of Orlando, the school board in Seminole County, Florida, is trying a different kind of academic-incentive program. Children in kindergarten through fifth grade who maintain good grades or have two or fewer absences get Happy Meals at the local McDonald's.

Joseph Berger covers education for The New York Times.