Brian Betts, principal of Shaw at Garnet-Patterson Middle School, said he knew that the experimental program to pay cash for good grades and behavior, which began yesterday at 15 D.C. schools, had captured his students' imaginations when they began asking about the economic crisis.
" 'I heard about this banking stuff,' " Betts recalled one saying the other day. " 'Are we still going to have this money?' "
The answer is yes. The Northwest Washington school's 307 students are among the roughly 3,000 middle-schoolers eligible to earn as much as $100 every two weeks -- to a maximum of $1,500 for the academic year -- for showing up on time, not disrupting class and getting high grades.
Students have been buzzing about the pilot program, called Capital Gains, since they learned in late August that their school had been selected. The school now includes students from Shaw, which closed in June.
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