Obama’s Challenge

My ears perked up a bit when I heard Obama challenge the states not to let kids drop out of school until age 18.  I think that’s a wise idea.  Right now in Vermont it’s 16.  Now one could argue that raising the no-dropouts threshold to the age of majority limits freedom, but to that I’d say then that we already limit the freedoms of children in many other ways, in particular forcing them to go to school until they’re at least 16.  Dropping out of school before graduating your period of free-to-you, government-sponsored education (ie k-12) is bad for you and bad for society.  Bad for you because you will be less employable, and bad for society because you will be less employable.  It’s a waste of the investment.  If we love our kids we shouldn’t let them drop out of school!  It’s the installation of rigor at an early age that sets the path for a person’s success in life, and a nation is only as good as the people in it.  We need an America Built to Last!  I’m going to bring this up at the next school board policy committee meeting, but I’m not sure a school board policy would supersede state law…  Is there a bill about this in the VT senate now?  The superintendent mentioned there might be…