Created: 10/27/2009 9:01:55 PM 
GREENSBORO, NC -- Some opponents call it idiotic, but supports say paying these teens pays off for the rest of us.
Tiwan Goodner, 14, and other girls in attendance are not just learning self-defense but self-discipline, and they're taking these moves to the bank.
"We are paying them to avoid pregnancy, to graduate from high school and enroll in college. Because it is a short term and a long-term incentive for them to change their life trajectory," says Hazel Brown, coordinator of the "College Bound Sisters" program at UNCG.
These girls all have older sisters who got pregnant before turning 18.
"Most teens that's having babies, they still a child thyself. If they can't take care of thyself, they can't take care of their child," says Tiwan.
Along with self defense techniques, Tiwan learns about abstinence, contraceptives and preparing for college. Tiwan and the "College Bound Sisters" earn $7 a week for coming to this hour and a half program. She has more than $600 saved up right now.
"It's a lot when you don't have any."
To cash in, Tiwan must stay in school and stay pregnancy-free. The dollars are only collectable when she enrolls in college.
"Because they know they have a thousand plus dollars earned and know they will lose it if they drop out of the program, it is incentive for them to stay with it," says Brown.
Brown designed the UNC-G program that started in 1997. She says her data shows these girls are twice as likely to avoid pregnancy as other at-risk teens.
Girls can earn more than $2,200 through the program. They also get five dollars a week for transportation, and a 2$5 cash bonus for recruiting someone to the program.
Opponents say that kind of paycheck is sending the wrong message.
"To pay someone not to do something wrong, or not to make a mistake like that, that's a concern," says Bill Wright, Chairman of the Republic Party in Guilford County.
Wright says encouraging teen girls to avoid pregnancy is a good idea, but not a good way to spend taxpayer money.
"I'd prefer it be funded by civic organizations, churches or other non-profits and not tax dollars. There's a certain thing called individual responsibility. And I think society is often taking us away from that and trying to put more of that on government."
The program runs on a grant for $75,000 a year.
"Cost for one of these girls is nothing compared to one teenage baby prevented," says Brown.
If one of these girls became a teen mom, Brown says it could cost taxpayers as much as $250,000 when you consider 18 years of Medicaid and other assistance.
Tiwan knows being a teen mom is not part of her plan. "I want to be something in my life. I want to get degrees and I want to have a good job."
So why not just have the program without paying the teens? Brown says that might work for some, but it would be a lot harder to get most teens to stick with it.
Remember they don't get the money until they register for college.
A non-profit group found teen pregnancies cost taxpayers more than $9.1 billion each year.
In North Carolina, nearly 20,000 teens age 15 to 19 got pregnant in 2008.
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