Posted on 01/27/2012 7:39:18 PM PST by re_tail20
Gov. Pat Quinn--following on President Barack Obama's Tuesday call to raise the dropout age--will ask the Illinois legislature next week to boost the age students have to stay in school from 17 to 18.
"I like the fact that the president said kids have to stay in school until they are 18. Jobs follow brainpower. We have to understand that investing in education, including community colleges, is the key to a nimble economy," Quinn said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Friday morning.
Quinn's office said in a Friday release he will propose hiking the drop-out age this year in his annual State-of-the-State address next week.
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Obama called on every state to require students to stay in high school until they graduate or reach 18.
Some 20 states already have that requirement; Illinois does not. In 2005, Illinois increased the dropout age from 16 years old to 17.
Obama made the proposal because stronger anti-dropout laws keeps students in school longer--thus increasing their lifetime earning potential.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.suntimes.com ...
What purpose is served by keeping someone who doesn’t want to be there detained in class?
Of course, most of them stay for high school until age 18. But it isn't mandatory. A kid can actually go to work and find a job at age 14 if they choose.
If they leave a home life of drugs or domestic violence, and later become stable, they should be allowed to finish then instead of the current course of flushing taxpayer money down a hole.
A lot of these kids can't concentrate on geometric proofs or chemistry right now; They have their minds busy with where can they get food, or how can they get out of daddy's sight before he tires of punching holes in the wall and looks for a moving target.
They fall into booze or drugs or obsessive day dreaming.
It would be more efficient to wait til they are grown.
And this is discounting the ones that become gangbangers and need prison rather than a school.
Right, what’s missing from the educational picture is more government.
Many Amish and Mennonites end their formal education at 14 in the US as well. I know many of them and most have a better education than the average 12 year government school graduate.
Your state needs an economics lesson on state imposed ceilings and floors.
Plus they can all speak fluent Japanese.
PS Wikipedia shows 15 years not 14.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_leaving_age
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