If ever there was a get-tough policy, the Eau Claire school board's new truancy rules are it. Board members last week voted to close both Memorial and North High campuses except during lunch. They also implemented penalties for truants that include up to and including after-school and Saturday detentions, tickets, court appearances, restricted driver's licenses, fines, revocation of work permits, ordering parents to attend school with their truant child and even juvenile jail.
Truancy is a concern for two main reasons.
First, if students skip school, they often turn out to be boneheads who cost the rest of us when they later turn to lives of crime or simply lack any skills that employers need. The days of plentiful factory jobs that pay a living wage are gone. Secondly, a large number of habitual truants pull down the rest of the school. How can a teacher move a class forward in their lessons if a quarter or more of the class is missing on any given day. That compares with truancy rates of 5 percent or less in La Crosse and Wisconsin Rapids, officials say.