Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 9:37:11 PM
So many Republican solutions to poor school performance take no note of parental responsibility. It is nice to find an exception, even if it is in Texas.
Quoting from the Dallas Morning News article "Bill would fine parents who skip conferences:
A Houston-area legislator wants to subject parents to criminal charges for skipping a scheduled meeting with their child's teacher.
Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, said it is time for the state to crack down on Texans who are shirking their parental responsibilities by failing to meet with the teacher when their child is having academic or disciplinary problems.
I have noted several times in this blog that many times school testing is of little value. People who care can simply look at the neighborhoods surrounding the school to judge the performance of the schools and their students. High performing parents produce high performing students and vice versa.
So often, low performing school teachers get absolutely no support from the parents.
I had a black politician tell me the other day that he got a high school diploma but had only gotten an eighth grade education. He went on to claim that it was still happening to blacks. I think he was blaming the schools. I would blame the parents. If parents show no real interest in the education of their children, how can we expect the children or schools to overcome that parental lethargy about education?
I'm not really in favor of throwing the parents in jail or dropping big fines on them when they don't try to improve the performance of their kids, but there must be some sanction that would get their attention.
Rep Wayne Smith is to be commended for his innovation.
Thanks to overlawyered.com