A proposed Texas law will make it a criminal matter if parents don’t respond properly to a teacher’s request for a conference.

A bill filed by state Rep. Wayne Smith would fine parents who neglect particular meetings with their child’s teacher.
Smith, R-Baytown, seeks criminal penalty for parents who fail to attend conference meetings requested by their child’s teacher. This would not apply to the annual parent-teacher conferences, only meetings requested to address behavioral and educational issues. The offense could be punishable by a fine similar to children who break truancy laws.

If approved, the measure would require the parent receive a written notice in the mail, outlining a minimum of three proposed meeting dates. The parent would have the opportunity to contact their child’s teacher, propose alternative dates, if necessary, and schedule a conference. Under the bill, any parent failing to respond to the notice, schedule a meeting or attend a meeting could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor and fined.  (source)

I guess the answer to the failure of public schools is to make criminals out of parents.  Teachers will be acting as law enforcement officers.  What is this world coming to?

Perhaps, if the government didn’t have its nose stuck so far in to education, crazy measures like this would not be necessary.  Schools would be able to deal effectively with problems involving parents if there weren’t so many laws regulating what they can and can not do.

HT to the A Stitch in Haste blog for highlighting this unnecessary law.  Here is his take on this law:

Let’s call this what it is — giving subpoena power to teachers, as if they were on a par with judges or prosecutors, and giving fining power to school boards, as if they were on a par with the criminal justice system. Not every “good idea” warrants criminal penalties for non-compliance, and fines such as this will only foment bitterness in the parent — probably not the best prescription for those already behaving sub-optimally. The entire concept is facially absurd — and this particular version also happens to be unconstitutionally vague, because it exempts “legitimate” reasons for missing a meeting. “Legitimate” — to whom, by what standard? Such undefined, subjective, discretionary gobbledygook terms are simply not permitted under our standards of due process.

It is time to end the window dressing approach to public education and institute a system of real school choice.

[tags]school, education, parents, misdemeanor, Texas, Rep. Wayne Smith, laws[/tags}