He wants a law passed that would pay students for good academic performance, a Michigan state senator has said.

The Detroit Free Press reported on Tuesday that state Sen. Hansen Clarke, a Democrat, pointed to a new Harvard study that showed there can be some success in such pay-for-performance measures.

The Free Press also reported that the Harvard study paid 18,000 students a total of $6.3 million from private donations for scholastic improvement. The idea worked well for reading more books and better attendance, but did not work as well to encourage better grades or test scores because students didn't comprehend what was necessary to increase performance.

Sharlonda Buckman, executive director of the Detroit Parent Network, said, "That is not the message we want to send to our kids, that you have to get paid to learn."

Tanisha Hill, a Detroit Public School teacher and parent of a charter school student, said, "As a parent, I think that it would motivate the child. But as a teacher ... why should I have to do this to get you to come to school when that's something you're supposed to do anyway?" (With Inputs from Agencies)