The problem with that is that low-income families either plain can't afford, or tend to be completely bad at delaying gratification for long-term rewards.
Agreed. Education by itself and the benefits it gives are very long term, too. So this payment has benefit in that it's a quicker return than plain education and would impact a net amount of people. Perhaps there may even be network effects in that those that are able to plan for this medium-term returns can convince and be examples for those that aren't able to.
