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.
It’s RIDICULOUS! but the country has been crazy for a long time.
Michelle at 18.
Christine at 22.
Susan at 27.
It might have been a LITTLE shocking in the late 80s and then the 90s. Now it’s not shocking at all.
In all three cases, I wanted to walk, and I guess this was some sort of bargaining chip?
Or adding a CHILD to the mix would make our issues go away?
insane.
Now if If I said I was a black guy in harlem, you wouldn’t say it was very hard to believe, would you?
College is for everyone and anyone now, not just those who are able and desire to attend. It’s all about the feelings and the money, lol.
The way I looked then it’s not so hard to believe.
The way I look now it would be a miracle equivalent to the parting of the red sea!!!!!!
I chalk it up to the ‘My Party’ Fascism+ Kool-aid: “As long as ‘our’ guys do it”, “I ‘paid’ into it...”, “I believe in XYZ, BUT...”, etc.
Yet, somehow, it’s us ‘kooky’ (L) that get the bad rap....go figure ;)
Exactly.
What happened?
I tend to think that the left/communism/socialism agenda got the lead since the conservatives left all the institutions to them, since the “conservatives” decided not to fight since they decided they could opt out and be all “above it all.” Seems they didn’t give a damn about our Founding Fathers and the Constitution either.
Yeah, we have almost no representation in Academia, the media, etc.
It’s a disaster.
I’ve been called everything BUT the Son of God. The opposite of ruthless is a slave.
But, when (not if) the s* DOES go down, it wouldn’t be by MY doing they die starving on their couch watching daytime TV....
I MIGHT even wipe a tear away (could be dust though)
Really?
Then you’re a moron and can KMA! Haha
“From some of the responses I was getting, I was afraid some FReepers getting soft.”
Which responses were they? The ones you thought were getting soft?
This was already done in 1993—The Higher Attendance in Michigan Schools Act (Higher AIMS).
Yeah there was no poor people or truancy prior to war on poverty.
Did you get your meds refilled?
Ah, I’ve been called worse :) And by family lol.
I’m too lazy to look them up and i’m in an extra right wing mood tonight. :)
so anything, even leaving them with clothes would sound leftist to me this evening :)
I think it happens every time I watch Goodfellas. I get rowdy.
As far as KMA, when i was young and drunk, i kissed some, how would you say, not the most handsome women :)
We apparently work/live/grew up in very different inner city schools.
You have a great job! I wish 85% of my students were as smart and cared about their education as your students.
So since 85% of your (black) students care about their education, then you got it made as a teacher. How wonderful your school day is. I would love to be able to teach to 85% of students who want to learn, have parental support, do the work required, etc.
I wasn’t only an inner city teacher, I was an inner city (white) kid. We don’t share the same experiences apparently.
I can’t like this post more than I do.
Excellent.
I think it's closer to 40-50%. The Black Underclass has such a pernicious effect on other black Americans, it's difficult to calculate how many blacks could be productive citizens if not influenced by their trash brethren.
But TBU should be separated from the rest of blacks and American society. Where to put them and what to do with them, I don't know. But they're totally useless and cost the country probably a trillion dollars annually through crime and welfare.
Oh yeah, I would still say it was hard to believe. lol
You missed my point. Perhaps I was not clear. 85% of my students are decent kids, and would do well if given the chance. But they are not given that chance!
Roughly 15% of my students are disruptive. They'll use their cell phones in class. They'll insult other students in the middle of a lesson. They'll come and go as they please. So I call home. And I get no answer. So I arrange for a conference. And I get empty promises from the student. So I write up the misbehavior. Administration will not support me. Their agenda is public relations, not school discipline.
I am actually a multiple award-winning teacher (thanks to my honors classes). But I don't have it made. I often think I should have gone into pharmacy instead. Much less grief there.
We disagree. I think maybe 15%, probably 5%, blacks are smart enough, care enough about education (without any freebies).
I’m fortunate enough now to teach accelerated Pre Algebra(7th graders) and high school algebra (to 8th graders) for half my day so I get to work with the smart kids and their parents get to deal with my strict rules and curriculum and requirements for the classes. And they can bitch however and how long they want but my class/my rules (curriculum based). If the parents or my District has issues with it, then so be it, because I ain’t changing. Everything I do is for the kids.
What on earth is the point of having kids who don’t want to go to high school go to freaking COLLEGE? <<<
LMAO...Good God man..its the “free money”...are u stupid???
How are they not given a chance to do well? Don’t you give them that opportunity in the classroom?
“Roughly 15% of my students are disruptive. They’ll use their cell phones in class. They’ll insult other students in the middle of a lesson. They’ll come and go as they please.”
So you, as the classroom teacher, allow this? How does this help the other so called 85%?
“I am actually a multiple award-winning teacher (thanks to my honors classes).”
Yeah. So much for those “awards.”
It would be a cold day in hell before I’d allow any student of mine to disrupt class in any way, or any student to use their cell phone, or be disrespectful to me or any of their classmates, IN MY CLASS. And there’s a snowball’s chance in hell of any student “come and go as they please” in MY class regardless of what admin thinks or does.
You want control of your classes? Then control them. Don’t rely on Admin.
Yeah, half of my students are hungry, even with free lunch and breakfast, and yeah I provide snacks of fishes or pretzels or teddy grahams, and candy on Fridays. But in my room, they behave because there’s no other choice. I don’t tolerate misbehavior. And I don’t give a damn what admin or parents think about that.
I don’t get paid enough to care.
And I tell my kids...I don’t tolerate backtalk from my own kids and I love them, so don’t expect me to tolerate it from you.
My students like me(most of them, lol) because my room is a safe environment for them. Every child wants to be/feel safe. They get that in my room. Those who want to learn, learn in my room. But no mistake, we do things my way all the time.
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