[kijinbear]

> Make parents responsible for their kids. Right now a lot of parents treat school as daycare for their kids, they don't care what happens there as long as the kids aren't at home.

Absolutely agreed. There's very little that a school can do for a kid if the parents don't care what the kid does at school. I'm not sure the solution needs to involve expulsions, but parents definitely need to have a greater responsibility in their children's education. You can't just drop your kid off at school and mind your own business.

If greater parental involvement in education means that one of the parents can't have a full time job and save money for college, so be it. Especially if you're already middle-class! I'd much rather have a caring parent than an extra vacation. Well raised kids should be able to pay for college on their own, anyway.

[kleinsch]

In most Teach for America schools, the choice for some families isn't between parents working to pay for college vs being involved in their child's school. It's a choice between parents working vs the family not eating. When the parents are struggling with subsistence, it's not surprising that they're less concerned with their kids grades.

[kijinbear]

Although the article only talks about TFA schools, the problem of parents treating school like daycare is not limited to poor neighborhoods. Too many parents seem to think that they're somehow absolved from all parental responsibility as soon as they drop their kids off at school. A large percentage of those parents don't have subsistence as an excuse.

[michaeldhopkins]

In these cases it is important for families to pull together. I would rather see the children get jobs and help feed the family than waste away in a school learning nothing because the parents are fighting off starvation.