Giving kids tickets? Instead of doing nothing? Yes!

March 23rd, 2008 at 12:08am Chuck Sweeny

“Give them tickets? Yeah, that’ll solve it,” said a member of the Register Star’s Community Viewpoints Board in a story in Sunday’s paper. The story goes on to say that the remark, about Mayor Larry Morrissey’s recent crackdown on in-school truants, kids who are in school but not in class, prompted laughter.

I understand the folks’ frustration, but how about we shed that good ol’ Rockford cynicism that keeps us from ever moving beyond perceived hopelessness?
It’s getting kind of old.

Because, you see, who in the School District had been thinking outside the box to get those children to class? At least somebody finally took some action.
Giving kids tickets was a last resort because the Rockford School District has not dealt adequately with the problem. My source — a daughter in one of the Rockford public high schools — said the ticketing had the desired effect. The halls were clear and everyone went to class last week.

It’s not a perfect solution, but we must not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Indeed, we  certainly must make the good the enemy of the status quo.

What we’re seeing, I hope, is the stirring of a community fed up with excuses for under-performing schools. I hope the mayor keeps up the fight, and I hope he can get some charter schools established.

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