Dollars for Deeds

How do you keep teens from getting pregnant or motivate students to make the grade? Offer them cash.

Each time Lisa Jones arrived at an East Baltimore, Maryland, health clinic for a pregnancy checkup last year, the 19-year-old was given a yellow voucher worth $10. After 10 visits, in which she improved her diet and learned how to care for an infant, she gave birth to a healthy baby daughter. "There are a lot of girls out there who are naive," Jones says. "The vouchers are a good way to get them to come in."

As a straight-A student, 17-year-old Luke O'Neil gets a 10% discount at his high school store in Kingston, Massachusetts, and free admission to all...

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