Note that Amazon's new free movie/TV-streaming service for Prime members isn't available to Amazon Student or Amazon Mom customers unless they pony up the annual $79 fee:
unsure the circumstances, but i just got one free year as it was offered during checkout, and days after the announcement i was sent an email saying i can watch streaming videos.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_...
So students and moms probably won't get Kindles for "essentially-free or even straight-up free."