Mike shouldn’t assume that paying kids for AP scores (as in Waterbury) is always a slam-dunk. In fact, according to Education Week, the author of the very study Mike cited “said the main spur for the score jumps at the schools in Texas’ Advanced Placement Incentive Program, or APIP, didn’t seem to be cash.”

And when we’re talking A-F grades, to assert that paying kids for better ones will necessarily yield better ones is hasty. Lots of studies on this front are inconclusive; others return results that contradict their predecessors.