Posted on 09/16/2025 6:18:29 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
American children are skipping school in staggering numbers.
It’s early September, and children should be back at school, right?
Well, many aren’t. With data from 44 states and Washington, DC, the American Enterprise Institute’s (AEI) director of education policy, Nat Malkus, discloses that the chronic absenteeism rate—students missing more than 10% of school days each year—was an alarming 23.5% in 2024.
Malkus notes that the surge in absenteeism affects districts of all sizes, racial backgrounds, and income levels, but the data does reveal significant differences by race and ethnicity, with 39% of Black students, 36% of Hispanic students, 24% of white students, and 15% of Asian students chronically absent.
Additionally, while students from both low- and high-income families often miss school, the highest rates occur in low-income districts, where 30% of students are chronically absent. Still, the rate has gone up even in low-poverty areas, increasing from about 10% to over 15%.
High-achieving districts have also been affected by the new normal. Over 15% of students in the top third at those schools are chronically absent, compared to 10% before the pandemic.
States vary significantly in the number of student absences. While Alabama, New Jersey, and Virginia have a 15% rate, Alaska’s is 43%, Oregon’s is 34%, and Michigan’s is 30%.
The problem is particularly egregious in our big cities. According to a recent report, in Los Angeles, where over 32% of students were chronically absent in the 2023-2024 school year, 34 elementary schools have fewer than 200 students, and 29 use less than half of the building.
Even worse, in Chicago, the chronic absentee rate is 41%. The city’s dwindling enrollment has left about 150 schools half-empty, while 47...
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing.
Maybe kids are getting smarter?
One the one hand it’s bad to have the children wandering around unsupervised. On the other hand, it’s not like they are getting an education at school. And they often are abused there.
I think even middle and upper class parents have come to view public school as, at best, a necessary ticket punch to move on to something useful. COVID shutdowns made it pretty clear.
In a feminized society the rules break down, order breaks down as things become unenforced, and then unenforceable.
Who are the bosses at all levels of the public schools and at home allowing this to happen?
I also suspect a lot of this “chronic absenteeism” actually involves non-existent students:
“...and Michigan’s is 30%.”
I’ve called and written France for some help, they don’t want Détroit back after founding it over 300 years ago. Likely the Canucks don’t want it either.
They're all going to Madrassas.
Well, who wants to send their children off to govt run schools to be mis-educated by communist idiots? Smart parents sure don’t.
Raised as good communists, society will take care of them.
Here’s hoping. I hope they get smart enough not to be indoctrinated into the sexual pervert commie cult.
How about you throw New Orleans in with the deal? Nahh, even the French aren’t that stupid.
Exactly.
The data actually show if you don't master the 5th and 6th grade material you can't learn what's taught in the 7th grade and high school.
The school moved kids ahead even though they never learned the earlier grade. Many school are now graduating graduates that are illiterate and innumerate.
Maybe they’re all being homeschooled.
And that’s saying something.
Heck, they've been doing that for a long time now. Because math, English and reading and writing are racist, dontcha' know? So now they just graduate illiterates so the teachers can feel like they're doing a good job and get more big govt money. The money's all that's important to them anyway.
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