Compulsory Education to Age 18: Bad Idea. Repeal: Good Idea

Just before the holidays, the legislature passed "Race To The Top" legislation into law. These bills were essentially improvements in how we educate children in Michigan. The motivation for it may not have been the best: to be eligible for millions in federal money. But, in the end, the legislation was pretty good stuff. You can read the objectives here. The Democrats slipped a "compulsory education to age 18" bill in as part of the package,even though it was not part of the federal mandates.

There is no evidence, (zero, none, nada) that keeping kids in school two more years improves test scores or achievement. But the bill was passed anyway.

On January 20, Senator Randy RICHARDVILLE, with co-sponsorships from NOFS, CROPSEY, PAPPAGEORGE, KAHN, JANSEN, HARDIMAN, GILBERT and JELINEK, introduced SB 1076, which will simply repeal the mandatory attendance to 18 and bring it back down to 16. Kudos to these Senators for removing his unneeded expansion of government. Let's allow the parents be responsible for keeping their children in school as long as they believe they should.