[Cincinatus' Wife]

***... The program relies on early intervention, tough love and scaring-families-straight techniques. ...***

***...During the past two school years, the district attorney's office has sent out more than 15,800 warning letters to parents and children in nine area school districts. ...***

***..."The program's been real positive. It helps make students and parents aware," he said. "We get tired of repeating ourselves." ...***

________________________________________________________________

I dare say, it's been "successful" keeping kids in public classrooms so as not to lose public money. Here we have another category to add to the education budget.

I must ask, if it's this hard keeping kids in public schools, perhaps the taxpayer should ask, "Why?"

[commonasdirt]

"During the past two school years, the district attorney's office has sent out more than 15,800 warning letters to parents and children in nine area school districts"

And most of the parents receiving those letters couldn't care less

[Darkwolf377]

Now The State is telling parents how to parent. All in the name of "saving tax money".

I got an idea--how about cutting taxes and saving it that way, and not increasing the amount of interference in people's lives? If their kids aren't attending or misbehave, out they go. But who gives the state the right to punish people for not being "good parents"? Who defines this?

[taxesareforever]

I thought school was only mandatory thru the 9th grade.

[Smokin' Joe]

Gotta keep the body count up so the funding comes in--or derive it from court-imposed fines....

Notice no mention was made of grades or course material mastery, only attendance. I wonder how many were bored stiff?

[kenth]

ping

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

So in Texas they force people to go to school until they are 18 at which time they can legally drop out.But if they don't drop out and skip school they go to an adult jail for not attending a childrens school. Makes a hell of a lot of sense o me .Every child that skips government run public school is a hero in my opinion.They need to be encouraged. If they skip enough school they might actually become intelligent.

If the kids get trapped in public school for any lenght of time there is no way they will graduate with the ability to read there diplomas or make change for a dollar if an item costs 1 cent but they will be ble to put a condom on on a banana which doesnt even work anyway.One of my friends got straight a's in his sex ed classes and knew how to put a condom on a banana with the best of them and he did every time he had sex and even after putting a condom on a banana every time without fail before sex he has 4 kids and hes caught three stds the nea is lying to you all codoms dont work

[Iris7]

Would not be so repellent if the kids concerned were actually being educated in those "public schools".

[MaxMax]

Looks like the Family court system. has a new styled money generator.

F-That!

How are two parents working supposed to police Teenagers?
Especially since whooping their BUTT'S lands you in court also?

Do these F-N judges think Everyone is rich accept for them?

AHHH!!!!!!!!

Stop having kids or become MUSLIM! *&%$(&#^$!@(&%_&*@!#

[I_dmc]

I wonder when the masses will notice that their local governments, unable to get tax increases to fly, more and more are turning to the collection of fines to finance ever larger government?

[Fresh Wind]

The sad thing is the kid probably learned more in a day of fishing than he would have in the classroom.

[stinkerpot65]

Public schools are evil.

[RockyMtnMan]

Money is not the answer and I have definitive proof that all you need is a good teacher that is dedicated to the children. Schools waste too much money on "teaching aides and instrumentation" rather than focusing on the level of skill of the instructors.

Pay teachers a competitive salary and give them a real curriculum to teach that is not infested with indoctrination and the problem will fix itself.

Professional teachers don't need to drug their students or attack the parents' "parenting skills". They motivate the children and cater to their specific learning styles and as a result achieve better results.

[Politicalmom]

Why are 17 year olds "truant" when they can legally drop out at 16?

Maybe if the government would keep its nose out of discipline earlier in children's lives, we would have fewer teens running wild.

[Publius Valerius]

Tough call.

As a kid growing up in Indianapolis, I spent a lot of May days sitting down at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. My folks called up the school, told the administration that I'd be at the track, and off I went. Of course, I went to a private school, so it's a little different, but things turned out fine.

But there are also the kids that can't afford to be missing days. I mean, there are some dumb folks out there that ought to be proficient in some basic skills so they aren't just sitting around collecting welfare. If we're going to have social programs, and I'm not saying that we should, the state has an interest in making sure that kids are educated to at least a certain level. Tough call here.

[Riverman94610]

Why indeed!I substitute teach in a large urban district and can tell you that LOTS of these kids who are of high school age should be in some vocational program or apprenticeship,not being made to take Advanced Algebra and Chemistry which are courses way over their heads and they then become classroom discipline problems.
ELEMENTARY school is a different arena.Parents should get consequences for letting this age group slide in coming to school.
My policy is that if you don't want to exert your brain and be a co-operative and positive influence in my class,then cut to your hearts content,baby!Its your life.

[paul51]

He asked the judge to give his daughter the shock treatment of a day in jail, but the judge declined, instead fining Hill $200

The guy needs to understand, it's not about truancy, it's about funding a new bureaucracy for the DA