Growing up in the suburbs of Long Island, I got paid to babysit. I got paid to shovel snow. I even got paid, despite my high-pitched voice, to Christmas carol. All of these things were meant to instill a work ethic in me. But what if I had gotten paid to get good grades in school? Would my life have been any different?

Students from some of the poorest areas of NYC are going to find out, as getting paid to do well in school is now just as much a part of their daily lives as riding the subway.

Opportunity NYC is the name of the program, a brainchild of Harvard academic Roland Fryer. Implemented last year, the program monetarily awards students and their families from elementary to high school for things such as consistent school attendance and showing up at parent-teacher conferences. Students who test well can also receive up to $600 for each passing grade on the Regents exam, as well as a $400 bonus for graduating. The program—privately funded—is inspired by similar initiatives in Brazil and Mexico, both of which have seen encouraging results thus far.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably sitting there with conflicting emotions. My gut instinct was a flurry of questions beginning with the word “but.” But what about the joy of simply learning? But how is this sustainable? But how do you know the money is going to be used for something beneficial? But isn’t this treating kids just like Pavlov’s dogs, conditioned to receive a treat for doing something good? But how is this, well, fair?

Then again, I am a privileged white girl from suburbia. And a former front-of-the room pupil who loved books, teachers and homework.

Fryer, a 30-year old African-American who comes from a tumultuous background, hopes the program will be a breakthrough in NYC’s struggling school system. It’s system where Latinos and African-Americans comprise a large portion of the high dropout rate, and where the average 17-year-old black student has the academic skills of a 14-year-old white pupil. Opportunity NYC is Fryer’s application of affirmative action, just at a more basic level.

As a young pilot program, the results are promising but still incomplete. There’s opposition. There’s confirmation of its benefits. For me, all of this reading I’ve done has caused a reversal of my initial hesitation. Sure, the questions still linger. But then I think about how that extra money can make a family’s dinner a little bit healthier, how an A on a test can boost a student’s self-esteem, how simple recognition can make a world a difference for a kid—and it all makes sense. It also begs the question: Isn’t getting rewarded for doing well how the real world works anyway?

Maybe Opportunity NYC will help reduce poverty and enable the marginalized to succeed. Maybe it won’t. Either way, it’s worth a try. Sometimes, just sometimes, the end justifies the means.