Kamala Harris' disturbing school truancy campaign

[AndyHogan14]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

[oraclebones]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

Wow, you're a real '90s Democrat, huh? Because having a parent with a criminal record will sure help a child!

[ON Progressive]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

The most truant kids aren’t 14 year old white middle class suburbanites being rebels because of bad parenting like you clearly think they are.

They are kids in unstable low income households. The last thing kids in those types of households need is a fine their family can’t afford or their parents taking a stint in jail.

[Mister Mets]

I'm looking a bit more at the source, and it's a bit shady. The author writes about being accused of being a Russian troll, and has some odd takes (accusing Terry Crews of cowardice for not responding to sexaul assault with violence, criticizing Obama/ praising DeSantis on pardons of black men convicted unjustly generation ago, backing a meme to encourage Sanders supporters to leave the Republican party.)

https://medium.com/@politicspeach

[darklordoftech]

Harris's logic here is how we got No Child Left Behind.

[Roblox]

This is the stuff that gives me pause, even though I'm inclined to support her.

[AndyHogan14]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

The most truant kids aren’t 14 year old white middle class suburbanites being rebels because of bad parenting like you clearly think they are.

They are kids in unstable low income households. The last thing kids in those types of households need is a fine their family can’t afford or their parents taking a stint in jail.

And the best thing for those kids is to be in school. Withholding school from kids, whether they be at the elementary, middle, or high school level is as close to abuse (without mentally or physically harming them) as you can get.

[ON Progressive]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

The most truant kids aren’t 14 year old white middle class suburbanites being rebels because of bad parenting like you clearly think they are.

They are kids in unstable low income households. The last thing kids in those types of households need is a fine their family can’t afford or their parents taking a stint in jail.

And the best thing for those kids is to be in school. Withholding school from kids, whether they be at the elementary, middle, or high school level is as close to abuse (without mentally or physically harming them) as you can get.

You act as if the parents are intentionally withholding school from these kids, when they aren't most of the time.

Also, considering there's mountains of research showing that truancy laws don't lower truancy and actually are possibly counterproductive, there's clearly better ways to deal with it than putting parents in jail.

[tosk]

The only actual surprising thing about this is how long it took for people to start realizing Harris sucks

Wait till she starts racking up the delegates in the primary. Many people underestimate the love many Dems have for Harris, specially WOC.

Is there any evidence of this? At all?

Members of the resistance movement are excited by her potential presidency.

(just saying something back isn't providing evidence, cite a source for this)

[AndyHogan14]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

The most truant kids aren’t 14 year old white middle class suburbanites being rebels because of bad parenting like you clearly think they are.

They are kids in unstable low income households. The last thing kids in those types of households need is a fine their family can’t afford or their parents taking a stint in jail.

And the best thing for those kids is to be in school. Withholding school from kids, whether they be at the elementary, middle, or high school level is as close to abuse (without mentally or physically harming them) as you can get.

You act as if the parents are intentionally withholding school from these kids, when they aren't most of the time.

Also, considering there's mountains of research showing that truancy laws don't lower truancy and actually are possibly counterproductive, there's clearly better ways to deal with it than putting parents in jail.

We can have a discussion about what kind of consequences there should be, but there should definitely be consequences. Kids should be in school, it is as simple as that. Also, I do not believe they are withholding their children for nefarious reasons but due to negligence.

[fhtagn]

It's hilarious seeing Atlas lefties admit they don't care about poor minority families. Keep showing your true colors, folks

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

This actually makes me support her more. Parents are doing their children extreme harm by holding them out of school and they should be punished for doing so.

[The Undefeatable Debbie Stabenow]

Harris’ opposition prove much more convincing when they focus on this or her history with prison labor than they are when they incessantly talk about her declining to prosecute Mnuchin. The first two are actual concerns, but the Mnuchin “scandal” is laughably overblown.

[oraclebones]

It's hilarious seeing Atlas lefties admit they don't care about poor minority families. Keep showing your true colors, folks

I assume that means you think this policy helps "poor minority families." Explain how it does. Or let me guess: you actually have given it no thought and have no awareness of how it affects people.

[fhtagn]

It's hilarious seeing Atlas lefties admit they don't care about poor minority families. Keep showing your true colors, folks

I assume that means you think this policy helps "poor minority families." Explain how it does. Or let me guess: you actually have given it no thought and have no awareness of how it affects people.

Uhhh, nowhere does it say I support the policy or that I think it helps people.

[dw93]

Honestly, I don't understand why people think she should be President. She hasn't got anything significant that is positive to distinguish herself(her probing on the Judiciary Committee isn't significant enough imo). Now usually this is an unfair charge, but I do feel that the main reason people are promoting her is because of her identity, not any substance to her personality or potential candidacy(well identity is substance in a way but no additional substance).

I agree with this. I get a vibe that people who a pushing her are making her out to be Obama 2.0 and I just don't see it, outside of the fact that Obama had only 4 years in the Senate in 2008 and she'll only have four years in the Senate by 2020.

[Lognog]

This is the stuff that gives me pause, even though I'm inclined to support her.

[JA]

I think it’s funny some Progressives actually believe that this will affect the centrist Liberals’ opinion of Harris. Did the “young buck” comment hurt Hillary among them? Or her hawkishness? Or her racist campaign against Obama in ‘08? Not one bit.

This won’t amount to anything to them; even if they issue a minor protest right now, they’ll still warmly embrace the woman whose policies saw minorities thrown into prison and given a criminal record that’ll be hung around their necks forever when they’re trying to find work, who fought against the release of nonviolent second-strike offenders because “their patrolling would result in prisons losing an important pool of labor,” and so on. They’re perfectly alright with someone who aggressively pursued what is, practically, slave labor in prisons. But, they also stroke it to Obama who did the same thing, so why not?

The myth that centrist Liberals are significantly better than right-wing Conservatives on issues of human rights, opposing exploitation, and combating social injustice is laughable.

[JA]

It's hilarious seeing Atlas lefties admit they don't care about poor minority families. Keep showing your true colors, folks

That’s because they aren’t “lefties.” Centrists? Sure. But, claiming they’re on the Left is ridiculous.

[JA]

Excerpt from Hillary Clinton’s 1996 book, ‘It Takes A Village...’

Harris is literally Clinton 2.0, right down to the endorsement of slave labor from the new Jim Crow System of mass imprisoning the African American population for ridiculous drug offenses then exploiting them to save labor costs (like any good plantation owner would support). Nominate Harris, lose again, then write another 2,000 articles trying to figure out how a mediocre candidate lost.

[Joey1996]

Lol I actually see people defending her horrible record as an AG saying she did her job and prosecutors are supposed to be "tough on crime" zealots. Someone tell that to Larry Krasner.

[Mikestone8]

What sort of nitwit allows their kid the play truant?

Surely the correct procedure is to give him a knife or other weapon forbidden by school rules, have him take it into school and then allow himself to be caught with it.

That way, he gets suspended and so is off school without having to play truant.

[pbrower2a]

This has always irked me a lot about her. Harris not only handled truancy by...prosecuting the parents of the kids skipping school, something that should be unconstitutional, she actually boasted about it and campaigned on it. So proud of family separation, and massive fines on already struggling families and then locking up parents who couldn't afford them. Its not only disgusting, its something she bragged about!

Very damning writeup: https://medium.com/@politicspeach/kamala-harris-career-as-ag-was-built-on-truancy-and-separation-of-black-children-and-families-d5dbcc5fde2f

Facts about school truancy:

1. Kids do not learn while truant.

If sick, they might be able to do some schoolwork as homework -- and they often want to as such defines a role that they want. This said, truancy is not the result of having IV tubes being connected to one's veins.

2. Truants are trouble. They are often doing petty crime such as shoplifting -- and they might 'graduate' to drug dealing.

Really, truancy is a mistake; it is boring. Daytime television is not made for school-age kids except for early-elementary education.

3. Truants become dropouts. Employers might willingly hire high-school kids to do retail or restaurant work, but they do not want dropouts who typically have hostility to authority and little tolerance for hardship. If someone can't deal with the soft bureaucracy of a school, then how can one deal with the harsher authoritarianism of the typical business?

I have seen the pattern as a sub in a school with some rough kids. If I see a large number of absences I get scared... potential dropouts are not good students. Maybe some districts concentrate potential dropouts in junior high and high school in certain hourly paths (1st hour English, second hour math, third gym, fourth civics, fifth an elective of some kid, sixth remedial reading) with the better students in different hourly tracks, one of the courses not being remedial reading. The more truancy a kid does, the more he falls behind.

...I do not know whose responsibility it is to tell kids that they are going to school and that they are going to buckle down and do what may seem difficult and unpleasant. California has some sharp cultural divides between people who value formal education as liberation and those who do not care. "Tiger Mom" may not be the most enjoyable situation possible, but at least with her one will get the sort of education that allows one to hold the sort of job  that allows one to remain in the parts of California that people want to live in.

The American economy is as unforgiving as it has ever been, and in the absence of any chance of a social revolution or technological  innovations that make life easy, we must all adapt.   

[McGovernForPrez]

This has always irked me a lot about her. Harris not only handled truancy by...prosecuting the parents of the kids skipping school, something that should be unconstitutional, she actually boasted about it and campaigned on it. So proud of family separation, and massive fines on already struggling families and then locking up parents who couldn't afford them. Its not only disgusting, its something she bragged about!

Very damning writeup: https://medium.com/@politicspeach/kamala-harris-career-as-ag-was-built-on-truancy-and-separation-of-black-children-and-families-d5dbcc5fde2f

Facts about school truancy:

1. Kids do not learn while truant.

If sick, they might be able to do some schoolwork as homework -- and they often want to as such defines a role that they want. This said, truancy is not the result of having IV tubes being connected to one's veins.

2. Truants are trouble. They are often doing petty crime such as shoplifting -- and they might 'graduate' to drug dealing.

Really, truancy is a mistake; it is boring. Daytime television is not made for school-age kids except for early-elementary education.

3. Truants become dropouts. Employers might willingly hire high-school kids to do retail or restaurant work, but they do not want dropouts who typically have hostility to authority and little tolerance for hardship. If someone can't deal with the soft bureaucracy of a school, then how can one deal with the harsher authoritarianism of the typical business?

I have seen the pattern as a sub in a school with some rough kids. If I see a large number of absences I get scared... potential dropouts are not good students. Maybe some districts concentrate potential dropouts in junior high and high school in certain hourly paths (1st hour English, second hour math, third gym, fourth civics, fifth an elective of some kid, sixth remedial reading) with the better students in different hourly tracks, one of the courses not being remedial reading. The more truancy a kid does, the more he falls behind.

...I do not know whose responsibility it is to tell kids that they are going to school and that they are going to buckle down and do what may seem difficult and unpleasant. California has some sharp cultural divides between people who value formal education as liberation and those who do not care. "Tiger Mom" may not be the most enjoyable situation possible, but at least with her one will get the sort of education that allows one to hold the sort of job  that allows one to remain in the parts of California that people want to live in.

The American economy is as unforgiving as it has ever been, and in the absence of any chance of a social revolution or technological  innovations that make life easy, we must all adapt.   

What's the point of forcing kids to go to school if they aren't getting anything out of it? Truants are likely dropouts whether they show up to class or not. Truancy is just a symptom of a much larger problem. Instead of punishing their parents maybe we should be thinking of other programs to help these kids out. Whether that be vocational school or whatever I think there are more effective solutions in the most circumstances.

[Mister Mets]

It's hilarious seeing Atlas lefties admit they don't care about poor minority families. Keep showing your true colors, folks

I assume that means you think this policy helps "poor minority families." Explain how it does. Or let me guess: you actually have given it no thought and have no awareness of how it affects people.

How does encouraging truancy help poor minority families? These are the kids who need every second in school the most.