Parents Whose Kids Refuse To Go to Jail Will Be Jailed

by David Kramer, LRC Blog
Aug. 23, 2010

That bastion of economic efficiency, the government of California, has passed a bill that could allow the state to jail parents whose kids miss more than 10% of jail time, er, I mean public school attendance. The “reasoning” behind the bill is that three-quarters of the state’s jail population are high school dropouts. Of course, what is conveniently ignored is: How many of the entire jail population’s inmates are there due to recreational drug-related crimes? Hmmm?

The Democrat (“Surprise”!) who came up with this Orwellian bill declared:

“It’s much cheaper to focus to getting that elementary school student to school than it is prosecuting a homicide," she was quoted as saying by the Bee.

As the writer of this story noted:

“Well, yes, presumably, it is. But putting parents in jail for this? If it is hard for a parent to somehow get their kid to go to school from home, you can imagine how hard it would be from jail. What about single parents? Where would the kids go? Should I keep on asking ridiculous questions about a ridiculous bill?”