Evicting the Family When a Child Skips School? Omaha Considers a Radical New Policy

Evicting the Family When a Child Skips School?
Omaha Considers a Radical New Policy



Under a complicated plan aimed at reducing truancy among its residents, the Omaha Housing Authority could, in a worst-case scenario, evict a family whose child chronically failed to attend school.

Between 2005 and 2007, the graduation rate of Omaha public schools dropped from 62 to 55 percent. And with 60 percent of students in those schools considered "economically disadvantaged," according to the Chief State School Officers in Omaha, officials searched for a creative solution to combat the problem.

"We came to the conclusion that we are the biggest provider of housing for low-income students," said George Achola, legal counsel for OHA. "We are one of a few agencies that have the capability to affect the lives of our residents 365 days a year."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Parenting/evicting-family-child-skips-school/story?id=10616121

Because clearly the problem is their behavior, not the fact that they're, you know, poor.

If the kid is truant, they blame the parent and punish the whole family.

see how good government works

:eyes:

It's all about punishing the poor for being poor, isn't it?

but what you said is a sad truth for some people. They actually do believe that punishment is a solution for people who can barely get by.

They are immoral, therefore they are poor. They believe the inverse is true, too: that the rich are better than everyone else. That's the only explanation I can think of for the reason why most in government and the right wing are so determined to cut funding for every single entitlement program under the sun except those that support corporations and the wealthy.

Maybe if school funding wasn't so dependent on daily head count. Maybe if more city/state taxes went towards providing more school buses...

You gotta understand, they can't get an erection except by causing misery.

How does that help anything?

What's next ... cutting off their food stamps cause hungry children learn best?

People who either don't have insurance or cannot take the time to take their child to the doctor for little things that still require kids to miss school (flu, cold, etc) will thus not be able to get their child's absences excused, which of course eventually leads to a truant score.

Either to prevent spreading it, or just because it's obvious he feels like shit.

And I've heard the one about me needing to send a doctor's note, and believe me, it infuriates me. And I have insurance and it's no big deal to take my son to the doctor, but I won't do it unless I feel it is necessary, which almost all of the time is (or is not) the case.

You won't see them taking the child tax credits away from middle class families because of truancy.

:grr:

but what is the solution? And it is not just make the teachers better, that answer is getting really old. Not looking for a fight just the answer.

entire family homeless solves the problem of the child skipping school how? It'll make them even less likely to want to go to school. Funny how they never make such asinine suggestions in order to improve the behavior of children from middle class families who are just as likely to be truant as these children are.

just let the kids drop out and then blame the system. I tried to drop out of high school two months before graduation in the mid 70's, parents dragged me home and made me finish. Lower middle class, father went from job to job. So what is your solution.

if you're waiting until then to do anything you're certainly waiting too damn long. Nonetheless the idea of making the underage school child responsible for his or hers family's potential homelessness is odious and it says a hell of a lot about the mentality people have toward the poor that one would even consider such a "solution."

Like I said, this isn't the type of "solution" people come up with when we're discussing suburban, or white kids for that matter.
But then we know how much more valued those children are than the black, brown, and impoverished. You think those poor families don't have enough on their plate without some asshat suggesting homelessness as a solution? Oh and by the way homeless children are even LESS likely to have a good attendance record at school so instead of trying to figure out why children are skipping school tossing them on the street actually exacerbates the problem. But hey kicking them out of housing it has a nice ring to it. Let's not even bother to contemplate that it's a completely asinine notion and one doesn't have to have an alternative solution to see how asinine the eviction solution is. But it's a not very original way to deflect from the odiousness of your "thinking."

not tying school funding to daily head count. That hoses poor districts in favor of rich suburban ones where the (affluent, largely white) kiddies go off to school every day.

what is the next. Holding the parent totally responsible is also not the answer ( I said totally). I have students that when we talk to the parents they say we or can't do anything with him/her, they just don't listen and do what they want. Again, what is the answer when you hold the school responsible for the dropout rate but nobody else?

just sayin'.

As if RTTT wasn't radical enough.