For ‘A’ Students in Some Brooklyn Schools, a Cellphone and 130 Free Minutes - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/nyregion/28cellphones.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Each student is receiving a Samsung flip-phone in a package specially designed with the program's logo. The phones come loaded with 130 prepaid minutes. Good behavior, attendance, homework and test scores will be rewarded with additional minutes. Teachers and administrators will also be able to use a system to send text messages to several students at a time, to remind them, say, of upcoming tests and other school information.

Some critics say it is absurd for school officials to reward students with a device that is banned from the public schools...MORE