I watched President Obama deliver The State of The Union last night, and our our president gives good speech. However, there was one part that anyone following me on twitter saw had me a little caught up.
Okay, a lot caught up.
President Obama proposes that every state make it law that youth cannot leave high school until they either graduate or turn 18. No more high school drop outs. Sounds good in theory doesn’t it? Well no, not to me it doesn’t and I’m a certified school social worker.
SocialJerk (@SocialJerkBlog) made the excellent point that, “Truancy is a MUCH more complicated problem than ‘harsher law!’”
I work with youth at risk, with homeless youth, and with youth aging out of the foster care system (aka soon to be homeless) a lot of my participants are the ones counting down til their 16th birthday so they can officially drop out, but not always for the reasons you’d assume.
Being warehoused in a a high school until 16 or the new proposed 18 isn’t always in the child’s best interest. If the youth has other barriers to contend with, other priorities like finding safe warm places to sleep at night and food to eat no amount of you must attend school until X age is going to compel them to do so.
But currently at 16 they can get a signed release from their school or district and take the GED. This makes them more employable than they’d be as “just another street youth drop out”. Why would we put another two years between them and that opportunity? I also help a number of my participants who get their GEDs go on to post secondary.
High schools are a kind of hell for some kids for so many reasons and that’s not being addressed by just requiring them to be there. Maybe I’m a cynic (okay, no maybe about it) but what I see is more kids on the BECCA bill being fined for non-attendance, because they still won’t go to school. They can’t pay those fines, their parents won’t pay those fines and the youth will start their adulthood in debt. They’ll finally be able to get their GED at 18…if they’re still motivated to do so. If they haven’t found a more lucrative and fun way to pass their time among their new street friends. Because raising the age of attendance to 18 or 21 or 45 isn’t going to make my clients go to high school if they already aren’t going.
I still love you Mr. President, but it’s a really bad idea. Don’t worry though SJ and I will be your new sassy and witty social work advisors. We’ve got this.
Comments on: "That Won’t Work Mr. President" (6)
I think that Obama’s proposal would probably have a provision for students who wanted to graduate early either by completing corsework during the summer/online etc. or via their GED. But I do think requiring compulsary education until age 18 for the “average” teenager who might just drop out at 16 because sleeping in is a lot more fun then Algebra 2 class is a good idea. I have SO many clients who dropped out and now at 40 or 50 completely regret the decision but are so far removed from high school they don’t feel confident getting their GED.
My county required attendence until 18 but a kid I went to school with wanted to go to college early so he petitioned the county to take his GED and it was granted because he was consider a motivated kid who high school wasnt the best fit (lets ignore that more than 10 years later he still has not completed his college degree).
Obviously it’s just speculation for now and we’ll never know unless they actually try to put it into practice. But it sounded like he wanted each state to create their own law. If WA did that by just changing the age in the existing one it wouldn’t allow for GEDs prior to the age. I actually have a hard time now getting signed releases from schools/districs sometimes for students who are technically above the age they need to be to take the GED. But even if there is an “out” what about the rest of it, how are they going to make students who don’t want to be there be there? How are they going to change the system do its not just a warehouse for our youth? How are they going to address the real problems these youth are facing that are barriers to their educations that make attendance difficult or impossible? Saying you have to go doesn’t make those disappear. If I am sleeping under a tarp getting to school isn’t my priority. If I’m switching foster homes again which means switching schools again why bother going I’m sure I’ll be in a new school in a few weeks. It’s a larger issue than what age I’m allowed to drop out at. (ok I’ll stop ranting and rambling)
I LOVE the thought of you and SJ being Obama’s social work advisors. The world would be a far better place!
Thanks for your vote of confidence! Now to just get POTUS on board!
Huh? Sorry, Canadian and have no idea what POTUS is saying. However, SJ has now blogged about Obama’s latest theory so it is official. You have coast to coast denial of the viability of his idea
Ha, I wish I had seen this earlier! Once we’re in charge, I think things will really shape up. I’m glad at least one other person is on board