I agree with the Aug. 22 editorial “The high cost of lax parenting,” but it’s not only that parents are failing to assist their children with basic academics that is costing our school systems more and producing less.
Parents are failing in their responsibility to produce youngsters who have the proper attitude toward learning, and even the basic discipline and social skills necessary to begin to participate in the learning process.
My children do not attend Chicago Public Schools, but even in our far west suburban school district, so much time and money are spent on drug-use prevention programs, character-building programs and all kinds of progressive discipline outlines for this, that and the other possible infraction of the numerous and steadily growing list of school rules.
It seems that the school administration, the teachers and, indeed, the parents assume that this entire realm of student behavior and discipline now belongs exclusively to the schools–certainly not the parents!
What amount of our tax dollars are going to these programs that could be spent on academics?
Once you add in the cost of metal detectors and the full-time security personnel that you need because, you see, these programs don’t seem to be all that effective in changing student behavior, that’s probably a lot of money diverted from boosting those reading and math scores.
