God bless you.
Have you ever read this essay?
ESSAY BY A TEACHER IN A BLACK HIGH SCHOOL
Posted on 10/16/2015 7:08:58 PM PDT by MichCapCon
The Jalen Rose Leadership Academy sets for itself a goal of graduating 85 percent of its students, having 85 percent of its graduates enroll in college and then seeing 85 percent of those students graduate from college. But the public charter school on the northwest side of Detroit may have difficulty reaching those goals when more than half its students were, as defined by the state, “chronically absent” from the classroom.
Figures collected by the state show that 51.5 percent of Jalen Rose students met that definition by missing more than 10 school days in 2013-14, the latest year data is available. That’s a huge increase from previous experience at the charter school founded by basketball star Jalen Rose in 2011. That first year, only 5 percent of students met the state’s definition of chronically absent, but that number jumped to 17 percent in the second year. Unlike conventional school districts, the charter school does not offer transportation for students.
In several Michigan school districts, more than half the students are chronically absent. That is the backdrop for a new state law that will go into effect June 16, 2016. It gives the state the authority to strip welfare benefits from a “program group” — the current term for a household on welfare — in which children miss too much school.
Public Act 56 of 2015, signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in June, requires the Department of Health and Human Services to figure out within 12 months how to implement the policy.
That task is complicated by various conditions and exceptions in the new law, a consequence of legislators struggling to find realistic ways to punish a careless parent without punishing the children. In the end, they told the agency to figure it out.
Theoretically, families could lose benefits if their truant schoolchildren were age 15 or less. Minors age 16 or 17 could be removed from the home and placed in foster care or some other alternative, as determined by a court.
If the agency decides to give real teeth to the law, the impact could be enormous given the magnitude of the truancy problem in school districts with large numbers of “at risk” (low-income) students. Two out of three students (67.1 percent) in Detroit Public Schools were deemed chronically absent in 2013-14, and it’s likely many of those missed far more than 10 days. Districts with similar demographics also have high absentee rates, including Benton Harbor (58.9 percent), Flint (52.7 percent) and Pontiac (49.9 percent).
Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, said he supports the law.
“You have to get the parents’ attention in order to affect student behavior,” Jones said.
He said the bill is a wake-up call to parents about their responsibility to get their children to school. Also, Jones said students need to go to school to be successful and parents must have a hand in that.
Gilda Jacobs, the president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy, said her organization doesn’t like the law.
“This is the kind of thing that pushes families deeper into poverty,” Jacobs said. “It’s punitive. It doesn’t properly address what the causes are for the truancy of their kids.”
Jacobs said students may miss school for many reasons, including having to take care of sick parents or siblings, problems with day care, not having shoes, or parents who don’t have access to transportation.
“I really believe this is a knee-jerk reaction to a problem instead of really attacking the problems that are out there,” she said.
God bless people who are willing to take physically adult minors who are also truants into their home. It does not appear to be a wise choice, but maybe the government subsidy makes the struggle worthwhile. Do the foster homes need to prove that the truant minor is attending classes in order to collect?
Stupid and probably unconstitutional. First question a judge would ask: “What are you planning on doing to the families of truants who aren’t on welfare?” Done.
I actually agree with the Jacobs woman. I think you need a better handle on what the real problems are before you go jerking welfare from people who are already poor. Jerking welfare may be an option for truly negligent parents, but that should be a last resort.
If they have a doctors excuse does it still count towards the 10 days?
This is racist.
Follow the money.
L
zero tolerance here...a few missed days are normal...headache, flu, family emergency. If the kids are in the juvenile correction system...they miss no days and the school year is 12 months, not nine....works great.
no welfare for those unwilling to try to help themselves.
They’ll never do it.
They’ll take money and social security away from starving elderly before they take a penny away from these losers.
Since this will have a disparate impact on minority families
That’s RACIST!
You will also note that this law gives the state the AUTHORITY to strip welfare benefits it (as far as I know) does not require them to do so.
Which means that they are not likely to.
And of course this law will face an immediate court challenge and because families may face immediate and damaging effects from implementation of the law it will face a court injunction stopping implementation until the lawsuit is decided.
Good ideas are never easily accomplished.
I couldn’t care less if they didn’t have a penny coming in. I didn’t tell them to have kids, didn’t tell them to not finished school and learn a trade or work two jobs.
Honestly, i dont give a #$#$ how badly or well anybody lives. It’s their business.
Dont remember welfare or food stamps or section 8 in the constitution
But what might happen is that they will pay kids $25 bucks a day to show up for attendance. Then they can split. It's all about money.
God bless you.
Have you ever read this essay?
ESSAY BY A TEACHER IN A BLACK HIGH SCHOOL
A point hidden in this headline is that those receiving the welfare don’t really need it to survive.
If they did, the government wouldn’t be threatening to throttle it in order to decrease truancy.
That being the case...THROTTLE BACK THEIR WELFARE ANYWAY.
Shoes can be had at second hand stores for cheap. And charities will supply them for free.
In most urban areas where most of these people live buses are free for school children. In rural areas also school buses run or the kid is in walking distance.
There are really very few insurmountable obstacles to getting a kid to school other than a delinquent and unruly kid in which it is better to remove the kid from the home and put him or her in a boot camp type environment.
That so sadddd Skypilot read it
Man I could imagine what that German exchange student think of that school YIKES
This is a state law. The constitution has nothing to do with it.
I walked pretty darn far to get to school.
As for home, pop had two heart attacks, two strokes, an aneurysm, and missed a kidney.
My mother did a crazy thing. She went to nursing school while taking care of five kids, and went to shop with food stamps at bight because she was too embarrassed to be seen with them.
Why will NO ONE say what the real problem is.
Like Rocky said to Paulie in Rocky III
You ain’t down and you aint a loser, you’re just a jealous, lazy, bum.
There are actually some very conservative statements in Rocky movies.
Like the one from Rocky Balboa:
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!
Well, it’s a pathetic law, and the country has become too pathetically sad and guilty for the “downtrodden”
they’re not my problem
Yes, I have seen the article you linked to. And for many reasons, it just doesn't ring true to me. It seems like whoever wrote that piece has an agenda beyond just reporting the truth.
Don't get me wrong. I've seen a lot of black-instigated violence, and a lot of black racism. I could tell you a hundred stories if you had the time.
But the majority of black students are not like the article proposes. Most of them just want to get by, and perhaps learn something significant along the way. And some of them will even give up their free time for extra help.
It's the minority of urban black students - perhaps 15% - who have wrecked urban schools with their ignorance and their violence. Why that is allowed I'll leave for another time.
Regards, LR
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