I am going to piggy-back off my friends blog for a few comments about this...I still don't support the idea of doing away with public schools, probably never will. I do however, think that if public schools are put in a position to compete with some charter schools they may meet the challenge.
As far as textbook used as shields??? It reminds me of students hiding under their desks in case of a nuclear hit, or putting textbooks on their heads during a tornado. These aren't the best plans we have ever come up with to keep our kids safe.
I think the misconception that kid's "have" to be in schools is also outdated. Students don't "have" to do anything - they will be the first to tell you that until they make a bad choice. Each day they make a choice to get out of bed and go to school, hopefully this is something that their parents support and enforce. Overall though it is a choice. There is also open enrollment in most states, so if kids are miserable at their current school they can typically enroll in a different school in their area. Again, parents have to support this decision. It's so weird how parents keep coming up in a discussion about students, huh, I wonder why? I don't think that their is an easy answer, but not requiring kids to go to school is definitely not going to change anything!!
Here is my question??? Why don't schools have a swipe system like most jobs. Students being required to use a badge to get into the school may cut down on the traffic that seems to go through. Honestly, I don't know how expensive these sort of systems may be, but I think it is a move in the right direction. Certainly not a fix all, but recording when kids are coming and going will definitely help with students skipping. Their chances of getting caught definitely goes up.
