Education: Good Grades, Good Risks

Boys hot-rodding up and down the highways all evening will get bad marks at school; boys home studying all evening will get good grades. State Farm Mutual, biggest U.S. auto insurer, is willing to bet money on this sweeping proposition. Starting this week in California, it will use grades to sort out safe drivers from bad risks in the 1640-25 age group. Insurance companies normally raise premiums by some 200% to 400% on a car driven by a null single male (girls are considered more conservative drivers, pay no extra premium). Now State Farm Mutual will cut insurance premiums by $10 to $100 on cars driven by unmarried males in eleventh grade through college, provided that they rank in the top 20% of their classes, have B averages, or can prove equivalent academic standing. But once out of school, they will have to resume paying high premiums until they turn 26.