DC Mayor Offers Middle School Students Cash To Learn

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Detention, suspension, summer school, remedial classes. Those are the old ways of dealing with underachieving students.

DC schools are trying something new: cash.

"When you have young people who get disengaged at such an early level from learning, especially in middle school, you've got to try something new," says Mayor Adrian Fenty (D-DC).

Beginning in October, some 3000 students at half the city's middle schools will be eligible for cash rewards for doing well at school.

The students will earn up to $100 dollars a month: two dollars a point for attending class regularly and on-time, for doing their homework, minding their manners, and getting good grades.

"They have every incentive to do negative thing, the wrong things out on the street. And we need to counter that," says schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.

But not everyone is buying. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous. If kids are going to learn, they're going to decide to learn for themselves, regardless of whether you pay them or not," says Demario Greene, a graduate of DC schools who is now a senior at Howard University.

But the mayor's convinced that the money will help young people learn to love learning. And with that, he says, they can do anything.