? Where does the money come from?

Fulton to pay students in after-school program ajc.com"The students chosen for the program were picked by school staff, based on attendance, grades, test scores and free or reduced lunch status, the release said"
What does free or reduced lunch have to do with it? The whole point is to try to get students to get better grades....its performance pay, not an entitlement. Are they saying that a kid who earns a C- but is on the lunch program is in more need of the program than the kid who gets an F but isn't on the program?? I don't think so.
But why are we paying kids for doing what they are supposed to be doing anyways?
That would be like getting paid for doing chores...I know some parents do it--but chores are those things you do in the house to help the family run smoothly....if you get allowance that's great but if not you still have to do them!!
These people obviously have never heard of Pavlove's Dogs or the Skinner Pigeons. Yes they will do the thing you want them to do..but only as long as they keep getting the award. As soon as the award is gone they stop doing the desired action. It is also harder to get them to repeat the behavior to begin to give them the reward again-although once they find they get the award again they are likely to begin the desired behavior again quicker than those just learning it.
So what happens after this pilot program is done?
Chances are great that after the program the kids will STOP all the study skills they learn thru the program.
But we will see what happens.
FUNDING: Okay I've been checking online and here's what I've found.
"Learning Makes A Difference" Foundation (LMD foundation) is a private, non-profit group. The daughter of Newt Gingrich is on their board and was one of their co-founders.
Reading other postings across the internet raised a really good question--
What happens when the other kids learn that getting bad grades can get you into a program that pays you? My guess is that test scores will start to go down over all. One poster said they already do this type of thing in Sweden....SO???? They also have over 60% income tax!!
One person mentioned giving the money to the top 10% of the class but that's no good either--you end up having a school system like ours....unless your kid is in the top 10% they don't give a $#!+. You will have 90% of the kids falling thru the cracks.
I hear teacher's moan that they aren't being paid enough....I'm not sure what the starting pay is, but being a teacher has NEVER been a profitable business. In the old days they would work for pentence and then had to stay with one of the families, changing homes every quarter or so.
What we need are smaller classes. Everyone thinks the way to do this is to hire more teachers...make bigger schools...etc. But I think what they really need to do is make SMALLER schools, maybe with as few as 20 teachers total. Cut down on the support staff (really how many secetaries and vice-principals does a single school need?).
I would rather this non-profit group work with the teachers on incentives than the students. And by incentives I don't mean for the individual teacher but rather for the classroom or school.