Expand APS truancy fight

Albuquerque Public Schools administration officials are absolutely right. They have to do what they can to make sure more students are in class, because students simply can’t learn — or graduate — if they’re not.

Let’s hope the Board of Education supports expanding an anti-truancy program and gives credence to the data: An initial version of the program cut unexcused absences by 13.8 percent in the 23 schools using social workers, truancy advisers and University of New Mexico work-study students to reach out to truant students.

In a district with rising truancy rates — up 6.23 percentage points last school year to 15.56 percent — and weak graduation rates — down 6.2 percentage points to 62.5 percent — that kind of drop is encouraging.

Yet, this is the same board in which the majority simply ignored data-driven success and rejected an administration-backed pilot of a University of Virginia turnaround program for five of the district’s struggling schools, because the below-the-line money didn’t come from the big pot of funding-formula cash and the idea didn’t originate here. Thankfully, unlike with the UVA program, the board doesn’t appear inclined to stop the administration on this program.

When trying to salvage kids who ditch, then drop out, then struggle to make ends meet as young adults, should it really matter if the program that could have kept them in school was above or below a bureaucratic budget line?

Expanding the program to 90 schools over the next two years will cost an estimated $1.67 million, primarily for the staff to help truants and their families. Board members should put partisan politics aside and support that investment in their students’ futures so they, too, not only attend class but graduate with the tools needed to join the workforce and/or higher education.