Why bother having kids in school this week? (Opinion)

My niece is finishing up middle school and a nice, well regarded, suburban New Jersey school district this week. They've been sitting in hot classrooms for the last few weeks watching movies. Nice! For my nearly $10K in property taxes, this hardly seems like a good use of taxpayer money. They've completed the work. The testing is all done, but they have to complete 180 days of "learning".

Being the father of three kids who attended NJ public schools, I know how the administration can be sticklers about attendance. I would routinely hear from one of the TWELVE-12-YES-TWELVE assistant principals in our high school about my daughter's attendance. She didn't like going to school. She missed more than the allowed days a couple of years in a row. However she was an A student. That didn't matter.

All manner of paperwork had to be exchanged and even a few "uncomfortable" meeting with the administration took place to try and explain how meaningless and foolish their requirements were. No matter, that is the rule!!! We talked about it on the air Monday and one caller claimed that in a central Jersey school district, students were allowed to arrive when they could, even though they were not classified as special needs. As long as they showed up 180 times a year, or there about. I call this program....Meh!

Meh, I'll go in when I feel like it.

Meh, I don't like getting up early.

We even came up with an acronym for it, M.E.H. - Modulated Educational Hours. Why not? As long as they get their silly required days of face time, which could easily be done from a laptop from home or Starbucks, let em do it! If you can't tell by now how little regard I have for our current implementation of the 19th century model of education, just ask me. Do I think their doing education right here in New Jersey? Meh, not so much....

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