Paying Students for Good Grades The positive results seen in the pay-for-performance programs indicate that such cash incentives mechanism does work in improving students’ learning motivation, as it provide financial support to low income students as well as nurture their confidence to achieve their goals. Given such positive results, some people believe that this incentive method should be popularized within the nation, while others hold a skeptical it, concerning that it may lead students to take shortcut in the course of study. As for me, cash incentives may be an effective way to encourage students to study. However, it is not sustainable in the long run. A great amount of money is firstly needed to implement the cash initiative mechanism, which might directly increase government’s financial burdens. Since nowadays more and more people attach importance to education, colleges are receiving an increasing number of students each year. That means, to satisfy all the students’ need for cash as a reward for their good performance in studies, the government has to increase significantly its budget to education, thus proportionally cut down investment to other public areas, breaking the balance of government expenditures. Secondly, given material rewards regularly for their study, some students might easily get deviated from their original intention to attend college; instead, they are likely to consider study as a job to earn money. As a consequence, some students may choose those courses that are easier for them to get satisfactory grades, so as to earn money in an effective way, regardless of their own interests or talent. It is also possible that, out of their inner drive, some of them might even devote all the time to study and ignore social practice, which is critical to their future working field. In conclusion, cash incentives may be effective in the short term. However, concerning students’ personal development and even for the whole society in the long run, we should still hold a critical view towards it.