children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

Chapter 3
Barriers to School Attendance
Children are excluded from school by a range of
barriers, overt and subtle. Many school officials and
others seek to blame parents and children for being
out of school. ("[I]t's dumb to lower compulsory
attendance laws because a lot of parents don't have
their children's interests at heart and would let
them drop out.") But we are convinced that most
children out of school are out not by choice, but
because they are excluded by school and societal
policies and omissions which we discuss in this
chapter. These include statutory exemptions from
compulsory attendance laws; school and book fees;
transportation charges; poor enforcement of truancy
laws; inadequate programs for bilingual children;
and lack of clothing for poor children.
Our findings do not support the commonly heard
claim that poor parents, minority parents or "uneducated"
parents do not value education. These
parents overwhelmingly hoped their children would
get an education "... so that they won't be like us."
We asked parents: "Do you think there should be
compulsory attendance? Why?" 93.6 percent of those
who responded favored compulsory attendance. Only
6.4 percent did not. 90 percent of white parents and
86 percent of black parents who had not completed
high school themselves supported compulsory attendance.
A black mother in Georgia said, "without an
education a person is lost. I can't even get a decent
job and I have a high school education. I want my
kids to finish high school, not quit at 16 to go to
work." A white mother who finished 9th grade said:
"I would rather pay for education and health when
children are small than for prisons and reform
schools when they are older." A Floyd County, Kentucky
mother who dropped out in 7th grade says she
supports compulsory education "so children would
never end up like me - can't read or anything.
Makes me nervous and I wish I could read and
write." A Chicano mother in Denver with five schoolage
children believes "there should be compulsory
education through high school. I tell my kids they
need their education ... because I know how it is
when you don't have any education."
Poor parents were not interested in a theoretical
debate about the value of compulsory education.
Neither are we. Although much has changed or been
called into question since the installation of compulsory
attendance into American life, we believe the
importance of education has not diminished.' Reformers
can quarrel about the way education ought
to take place. Critics can debate its organization and
cost. Academics can try to measure its impact on
students relative to other variables. Parents and students
can vaHdly question its quality, its rigidity, its
monopoly. But even the skeptics cannot deny the
importance of formal education in an industrial
society that respects credentials. 2
We do not suggest that lack of education is the
most severe or the only obstacle the children dis-
1 Massachusetts was the first state to pass a compulsory attendance
law in 1852; Mississippi the last, in 1918. Mississippi
and South Carolina repealed their laws leaving 48
states and the District of Columbia with compulsory attendance
laws. See Table I, p. 57, for a chart of the provisions
for compulsory attendance in each state. Also, Appendix
J lists the definitions and penalties provided in state
statutes for truancy. But see footnote 5.
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