I’m much more cynical:

1. It was probably a tax write off.

2. It was probably also both a community service project AND a reflection of lower expected insurance payout.

3. Maybe the straight-A students are correlated with insurance payers that would rather pay the repair known 1-off payment (or skip doing anything at all) vs the unknown recurring increase in insurance payments?

(Source: drove a dented-up pickup for over a year after a short romp along/into an orchard)