Schools need to enforce attendance rules
Worry is part of being human, and in many cases constructive worrying is a catalyst for positive changes. However, most of our worrying is wasted brain energy, and our tendency to worry can result in weak resistance to financial scams. The result is we take a hit in our pocketbook as the worry-makers dangle a promise of easy money if you just click. Or pull bucks out of your billfold.
When it comes to making money, almost anything goes in this country with its representative democracy and free speech. There are thousands of folks who make a living writing scare headlines. Open the Internet posting from almost all the major Internet providers and take a quick look at the hundreds of “click on me to read more” postings.
These headlines have one thing in common: They are geared towards selling. It may be direct or subtly intended to keep you hooked by flashy come-ons about someone like Taylor Swift, or a threat that suggests North Korea is going to send a nuclear warhead to San Francisco. These are usually intended to sell you a subscription to a service.
The Internet is a great information device, but behind much of the information is a push to make money. When a significant war such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is in full swing and Putin threatens NATO with nuclear weapons, that headline draws us to click on it and read the details.
However, the news-imparting Internet is a roaring capitalist money-maker; some of its “news” is made up of pay-to-view articles, enhanced ads, and teaser what-if scenarios that promise to let you read the full story if you subscribe to the service. It’s tease marketing at its best, and nuclear war seems to be the current worry to make you subscribe, even though the actual odds of a nuclear war are up there with winning the lottery.
The leaders of countries with nuclear weapons know that if they use a nuclear weapon against a NATO country, their country will soon be a blackened ruin. Furthermore, to make sure that doesn’t happen, the unleashing of these weapons is dependent on dozens of individuals who must sign off on the launch. So put that set of worries aside. It ain’t gonna happen. And forget about China invading Taiwan. China is not going to do anything to alienate its best customer: the United States.
We have other worries that need to be resolved. The first has to do with educating our youth. Recently a report of the number of chronic non-attending students was released; some schools had unexcused absences at over 40 percent. How are we going to educate our youth if they aren’t in class?
The covid crisis shows how critical class attendance is to learning; we are still trying to catch up to previous education standards from all the lost time.
Attendance is mandated by the state, and penalties of up to $500 for parents are spelled out for chronic absenteeism. But how many parents have been hit with a $500 fine? I couldn’t find out by checking the Internet, but since attendance is so critical, it seems to me that if your school has a 40 percent unexcused attendance problem and your school board has never levied a fine on a parent, something is wrong.
Yes, a large part of the problem rests on the parents, but if the parents don’t enforce school attendance, the schools and ultimately the school boards must.
If your school is struggling with chronic absenteeism, you should be actively pursuing the problem. If your school board isn’t using every means available to increase attendance including charging and fining the parents, you should be insisting that they do so.
The buck stops with the state board of education. It’s a disgrace to not enforce attendance along with academic standards. Your focus on academics is necessary, but when attendance is an overriding factor, you should crack down on schools who are guilty. Mandate good attendance. Schools that don’t comply should be hit with tough penalties. It will do more than anything else to bring up our states educational results.
Hit ’em where it hurts the most: in their pocketbook.
How is our state going to pull itself up to national standards if our kids aren’t in school? Of all the requirements you can list, attendance is surely the most important. Don’t put up with absenteeism.