Many teachers across the country are no doubt frustrated that the parents of some of their students have little contact with the teachers to determine how their children are doing.
After all, it is no mystery that children perform better in school when their parents are “looking over their shoulders” to make sure they are doing their homework and so forth. Being in touch with teachers is one important part of the effort to keep kids on track in school.
But a prosecutor up in Wayne County, Mich., has taken that worthy goal to an extreme. She says parents who fail to attend parent-teacher conferences ought to face jail time.
Prosecutor Kym Worthy correctly notes the benefits of parental involvement, but she does not seem to have thought about the ugly unintended effects of putting parents in jail for not showing up at a meeting with teachers.
“There’s hardly any benefit from government coercion,” one observer told The Detroit News. “Are kids going to be better off if they have a parent in jail?”
Mothers and fathers certainly ought to be urged to be involved in their children’s education. But short of actual abuse or serious neglect, they ought not to face threats of jail time for being inadequately involved.