- Kids -

I was part of a "War Party"

In Reply to: Re: high school dropouts posted by lisa w. on May 28, 1997 at 22:37:21:

: I have done some extensive research on high school dropouts. If you look into back issues of a newspaper, there should be a recent chart of the lesser amounts of money made by high school dropouts than those who stay in school. Also, there are brochures available from the US Dept. of Education which can explain more fully the downsides to dropping out of high school. To be truly convincing in your argument, you need to base your opinions on fact and statistical evidence. Opinions do not phase those who are interested in dropping out of school. You must have cold, hard, proof, and it is there to be found. The internet, under Yahoo, search topic dropouts AND high school is a good place to begin your research. It is probably very extreme to try to completely stop high school dropouts. You would have fourt-year-olds in the tenth grade. It is more plausible to make regulations, such as age, surrounding dropping out more strict and not as appealing to students. The No Pass No Drive law is one such regulation. Another is the age limit. By checking in an almanac, you can compare the age limit in your state to those of other states. This information should be somewhat helpful, also check out Education Digest back issues and other academic journals on the subject. Infotrac, a CD-Rom based research program, is also very helpful.

You mention "no pass-no drive. This year I was part of a "War Party" the UAP sent to Annapolis to testify against such a proposal in Maryland. We all showed up dressed in SWAT team black for the intimidation factor and proceeded to rip apart the argument of education activists.
The first thing we pointed out is that it would simply encourage more teenagers to use a false birth certificate claiming to be older to get a license-and why not when younger than the minimum age while at it? Also this would help defeat the drinking age-a law the UAP was partially organized to defeat a crackdown on.
The second issue was that licenses revoked for dropping out after being licensed would just put UNLICENSED drivers on the road-some of whom would resist arrest with physical force(this in an area with more cops being killed than anywhere else in the nation).
The final point was that the school haters would, if they could not leave, simply stay and disrupt classes. To prove our point, we circulated a list of all of the bombings, bomb threats, and other violent anti-school and anti-authority actions by area young people in the last two years and asked if the committee wanted more of this.
The bill was shot down in the very committee we appeared before and I hope it does not appear again.

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