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Compulsory Attendance Bills Threaten Education |
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by Paul Kaiser
Email: buddy1 (nospam) advancenet.net (unverified!) |
20 Mar 2001
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Two bills at various stages in the Illinois legislature are attempting to lower the required school attendance age from 7 to 6. These bills encroach on parental choice and pose a developmental threat to young children. |
Two bills at various stages in the Illinois legislature are attempting to lower the required school attendance age from 7 to 6.
While on the surface these bills appear to be attempts at improving education, the bills are largely unnecessary. Furthermore, they take more choice away from parents and home educators who stand to best make decisions about their individual children's needs. Various research concludes that admitting children to school too early actually has negative effects.
Dr. David Elkind, a Tufts University psychologist, concludes that earlier formal education seems to provide no real educational benefit. In fact, he found that earlier institutional learning poses risks to children's self esteem and motivation. He concluded that earlier schooling seems motivated more by adults' needs than by an understanding of what's good for the children.
Karl Zinsmeister, Adjunct Research Associate at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, specifically points out the risks of declining parental attachment. His research concludes that time spent with a parent is "the very clearest correlate of healthy child development." Requiring earlier schooling would encroach on parents' ability to gauge their child's readiness to enter the school system.
Other research points out failures in billion dollar federal programs such as Head Start -- an early education program for inner city children. The Westinghouse Learning Corporation and CRS Synthesis Project study came to the same conclusion:
"... there are no educationally meaningful differences."
Lower required attendance age would expand the number of children each school system must accommodate. State education costs would increase to hire more teachers, staff, and to provide space for the additional students. In 1991, while considering lower compulsory attendance age in Alabama, it was estimated the cost to state education would increase $4.7 million per year.
Requiring young children to attend school by law seems to be unnecessary. In 1998, Connecticut hearings estimated that parents kept only three to nine percent of eligible children out of kindergarten. The time and expense to institute lower compulsory schooling age would only serve to reign in that small percentage of families who exercised the freedom to decide when their children should begin school.
Representative Douglas Scott has sponsored House Bills 795 and 787. 795 has passed the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee, and is headed for a full House vote at any time. 787 is currently assigned to the House Rule Committee.
If you are concerned about the state eroding rights from parents, please contact your state representative and encourage them to vote against House bills 795 and 787. Specify they are sponsored by Representative Douglas Scott. Key reasons you might disagree with these bills are the restriction of parental choice and a potentially increasing burden on the education system.
To find out your state representatives, you can call: 217-782-8223. |
