Fair or Not? No driver's license for dropouts!

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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A bill under consideration in the Minnesota Legislature would try to keep teenagers in high school by preventing dropouts from getting their drivers licenses.
The Star Tribune reported Tuesday that the proposal has bipartisan support, including the backing of Sen. Gen Olson, a Minnetrista Republican who heads the Senate Education Committee. The bill hasn't had a hearing yet.
At least 20 other states, including Wisconsin and Illinois, link school attendance and driving privileges. Minnesota law requires students to stay in school until age 16. More than 4,000 high school students dropped out in 2009, or 5.6 percent based on four-year graduation rates, according to the state Education Department.

I believe this is a bad way to solve an even worse problem.
Our kids don't always want to drop out of school, some have suitable reasons for taking leave. This will just add another obstacle in there paths.
What do you all feel about this, as it is being instituted in more and more states recently?

Link to story

A really stupid idea, right up there with mandated drug tests to get unemployment compensation, or any of a dozen other really stupid ideas being floated around right now.

reply to post by AnteBellum


That is not the way IMO more young people may start to rebel, grand theft auto may rise, and more uninsured drivers...Every problem solved creates another problem in another area..

reply to post by AnteBellum


Thats has got to be the stupidest thing ive heard in a while. They cannot force people to become educated and driving is a privelage granted to you when your are old enough to responsibly drive. The way i see it is... We will always need garbage men. And I would appreciate it if they were able to drive to the grocery store during their off time.

MOTF!

So schools will now be filled with an extra 5.6 percent of resentful students who dont want to be there and are just "doing their time" until they are allowed to leave.
Sounds to me like an extra 5.6 percent of troublemakers.

Originally posted by Open_Minded Skeptic
A really stupid idea, right up there with mandated drug tests to get unemployment compensation, or any of a dozen other really stupid ideas being floated around right now.

How the hell is drug testing to get an unemployment check a stupid idea? I think it's fair to make sure MY tax dollars aren't being used for you to buy drugs.

reply to post by AnteBellum


We do live in the USA - We are supposed to be "free" and how would stopping someone from driving because of a choice they made to stop going to school make any difference in that "freedom"

Yay! USA

I thought it was our god given right to travel freely.....this clearly stops this, which means they are trying to get rid of even more rights.

Driving....traveling, is not a privilege its a right!

reply to post by Adyta


Unemploment is something you have earned by working. We dont need anymore loopholes to take away something that someone has earned. Welfare reciepants on the other hand.........

Sorry for the offtopic. I wonder if this will be in effect for homeschooled students also? Would you have to get a GED to get your DL?

MOTF!

reply to post by AnteBellum


Reality; Said drop-out will more than likely want or better yet, NEED to work. The said drop out needs transportation. Drop out uses public transportation....Drop out cannot find better pay for labor because of his/her location, and the trip to work has to be short, anyway......the future looks bleak for drop out.....so drop out wallows in depression, works nights, and stays sick, eventually becoming very unhealthy. Drop out gets on disability, welfare, food stamps, lives in public housing...etc....on your dime. One of many possible outcomes that happens too often. Its almost like you take a one legged man and chop the other one off. Just more B.S. getting made up by people we call politians that obviously have way too much time on thier hands, who grew up star athletes, got passed in school because so-and-so was banging so-and-so, and guess who knew, then floated through college in a drunken smoke cloud while some girl did his paper...
This is a symptom of something much larger....not one of the bigger, glaring symptoms we see clearly today, but a very important one.
Keep that drop out down, and you can hire him to do the lawn, and pay him in ice tea and $10.....guilt free...

etc...etc...etc....

Giving troubled youths fewer and fewer choices in life?

Sounds like a great way to increase teenage suicide rates.

reply to post by MessOnTheFED!


No, it is not. Unemployment isn't your "reward" for working. Unemployment is there as a safety net for the people who have worked, but lost their job. It's money given to keep you on your feet while you LOOK for another job. It's not "Finally, I worked for 2 years now I can retire and claim unemployment!".

If you can afford to buy drugs, then you clearly do not need unemployment. If you buy drugs with unemployment, they you do not deserve it.

I'm fine with my tax dollars being used to keep you above water while you look for work. I am not okay with my tax dollars being used so you can buy a bag of weed, and sit at home and watch Springer.

It can't be that hard to acquire a GED. Keep in mind I live in the Bay Area CA and I am honestly sick of the saturation of motor vehicles here, that I would almost support anything to get more cars off the road.

If anything this is incentive for them to stay in school, if they want to go cruising around town. Hell, they can still use a bicycle, walk, use public transportation, car pool with someone else, etc...

So basically yes I support it. I wish that my state Government would come up with a plan to reduce the number of cars on the roads in California, certainly... Even on a nice lazy sunday here our freeways are utterly clogged with traffic

But I also like the idea of mandatory drug testing of Welfare recipients. That would be real interesting.

reply to post by AnteBellum


"Fair or not" belongs to the people of Minnesota or wherever else they are considering that.

As for Texas, if that were happening here, I would say fine by me. Driving is a privledge and education is very important. Do what has to be done to earn both. Go to school=drive.

Of course this is a great solution.... *scuffs* In a time of a declining education quality, economic hardship, and deteriorating public transportation systems, this is obviously what needs to happen. How are kids in Detroit going to be able to get cars? Going to school there is a day-in day-out affair, with just walking home being a dangerous act. And now that schools are closing at an exponential rate and experienced teachers (the ones that care) are getting laid off left and right its only a matter of time (if it hasn't already happened in your state) that dropout rates will climb to unprecedented levels. I would love to see them even ATTEMPT to introduce this bill without huge backlash from the community (let alone nationwide coverage)... Ugh... This just aggravates me...

reply to post by Adyta


Well thats the difference in me and you then. I dont give a crap what people do as long as they dont step on my toes. Kinda stupid for me to dictate what someone else can do. Live and let live. And if the law states that you have "x" number of available unemployment checks for working "x" ammount of years, then who am I or you to tell them they didnt earn it?

MOTF!

That's absolutely a silly idea. Anything to keep the money flowing to the school district, after all the government pays x amount of dollars for each child enrolled in school so in a nutshell dropouts represent lost revenue, hence the real reason to prevent driver license issuance to dropouts..

I say not fair. High School dropouts still need to be able to drive to deliver pizzas or work at Wal-Mart or McDonalds or heck even be a taxi driver.

If you can not pass simple high school, how are you to comprehend all the laws and variables implicated in driving ? If you can study hard enough to pass your driver's exam then you should be able to study hard enough to get your GED !

Originally posted by loves a conspiricy
I thought it was our god given right to travel freely.....this clearly stops this, which means they are trying to get rid of even more rights.

Driving....traveling, is not a privilege its a right!

"Travel"(by foot!) all you want there is no "right to drive".Where would that idea even come from?)