Education Cash incentive

A classmate in my Intro to Ed. class posted this article. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/21/AR2008082103874.html

I am interested in what others think of this incentive. I think it has possibilities, but I can also see some drawbacks. Fist it will probably increase student achievement but what will it do to their moral outlook. What will be done with the money. That is a lot of cash to simply hand to an 8th grader. Also this might be an incentive for parent involvement, but whether that is a good thing I am not so sure. The parent involvement would often be for personal gain and might give many more of a reason for abuse. I think it might work if the children were given classes on how to manage the money and required to put a certain amount away for higher education or personal use after the age of 18.

Please comment on this article I would love to read others opinions.