If you have 400 1-TB drives and 365 fail in one year, you chose a crappy brand of drives. I expect my failure rate on those to be 3%-8% on a yearly basis, so I would expect as many as 32 drives to fail in a year.

That is the culture we live in. Governments look as far ahead as they the next election. In the US, if you want to try to effect change through the government, go to a Senator (six-year term) instead of a Representative (two-year term). A Rep is looking for how to get elected to their next term before the ink is dry on the results from the last election. You won't get that change unless your good idea comes packaged with a bundle of laundered money, but at least you tried. Parliamentary governments look to when the next elections must be scheduled. Do you think Gordon Brown is worrying about the economic situation in 2016 when he is struggling to keep his hold on power? I don't. Self-interest is the greatest motivator. If the child sees something in it for them, they will perform better. Some children value learning and the money won't help. some see little value in learning and money will help because there is some value. Some children may be more motivated by seeing their name on a plaque in the hallway of their school than they would be by money. The point is not to look at this study and say it does not work for everyone, so it is not worth paying them money. The point is to look at the 70% (wild-asses guess) of underperforming students and determine what motivates them. If this helps 20% of that group of underperformers, then you are left with 56% of the total pool that needs help. Then move on to the next idea to attack that smaller pool. Just because something does not help everyone does not mean it cannot help anyone.

Ted Stevens? Is that you?

Management is only a one way street if you let it be. I moved from an academic IT management position overseeing 20+ people after working my way up through the ranks. One of the things I learned from the position was not to allow my skills to atrophy. As a fledgling manager,one of my tasks was to lay off a former IT guy-turned manager whose team was absorbed into mine. He was not able to downshift back into tech and was eased into early retirement. After 15 years of working through the same company from newbie IT guy to manager, I had enough and moved to a startup where I am Director...of a one-man shop. I kept my IT skills sharp enough to sell myself as someone who could be an individual contributor now and turn into the leader of an IT organization in the future. If that never happens, I have both avenues open for my next job. Management is often a one-way street, but a manager who allows himself to lose IT skills is limiting themselves and has no one else to blame.