When it comes to chronic truancy, the solutions usually used by traditional school districts (when they bother doing so) tend to be heavy-handed and ineffective. This includes the use of suspension and expulsion (odd given that the kids are already skipping school), truancy sweeps by local cops and charging parents and kids in special truancy courts. The last two end up clogging up courts and leveling hefty fines by the kind of parents and kids who could never afford them.  More importantly, this sweep-and-court approach does not deal with the underlying causes of truancy (especially at the middle- and high-school levels): Years of educational neglect by schools and parents that have led to kids being unable to succeed academically.

Watch this video from the ACLU of Texas about the sweep-and-court approach being taken by Lone Star State districts — including Hidalgo County (where one justice of the peace overseeing truancy cases has been indicted on charges of Official Oppression charges). Consider what alternate steps that can be taken to stemming truancy. Improving the quality of teaching, curricula and parental engagement in schools would do more to stemming truancy than more courts and heftier fines.

Some things just make sense. This includes the fact that all children, whoever they are, deserve a high-quality education in order to fulfill their economic and social destinies. Not everyone believes this — especially many defenders of the status quo in American public education, who argue that poverty is the underlying reason why our poorest children are subjected to what is essentially educational malpractice.

One person who believes otherwise is Howard Fuller, the former Milwaukee schools superintendent who helped launch the first school choice program in the United States and has advocated for better schools for every child. Watch this video of an appearance he made last year at Denver’s Manual High School and consider what you will do to assure that every child gets the schools they deserve.