Bored of Education?

Brace yourselves, Richmond County kids. The hammer is coming down on you in a few weeks.

That's right. This school year, you'll be allowed only 10 unexcused absences.

Only 10! Can you believe that?

How cruel and unusual can the school system get? Shouldn't we just drop all pretense and change the name from Richmond County Public Schools to Abu Ghraib?

Well, maybe not.

In truth, allowing 10 unexcused absences a year is stark-raving lenient. What business do Richmond County kids have skipping school up to five days a semester without any serious consequence? What is that, except 10 "Get Out of School Free" cards?

Do we really have that luxury? Are America's schools that far ahead of the rest of the world's? Is education less important in today's Information Age than it was in decades past? Is having unsupervised school-age kids roaming the streets during the day something we should seek more of? Are Georgia's and Richmond County's test scores so much better than the rest of the nation's that we should reward our kids with 10 unscheduled days off?

The answers to the above questions are, as follows:

1. No.

2. No.

3. No.

4. No.

5. No.

The facts are: America's schools have continually fallen behind the rest of the industrialized world's; education has never been more important than in today's technologically, fast-paced and competitive world; the entire state and nation are actually trying to crack down on truancy; and Georgia's test scores are among the absolute worst in the nation.

Given these answers to the above questions, why on earth would any responsible member of the Richmond County Board of Education vote to extend 10 unscheduled, unauthorized, unhealthy and unhelpful days off to the county's school children?

Amazingly - and now it's time for you parents to brace yourselves - some in the Richmond County school system will argue that reducing the number of unexcused absences from 12 to 10, as the administration has proposed, is "cracking down." And they will proudly note that, only a year ago or so, the number of unexcused absences allowed in Richmond County was - gulp! - 24.

Believe us, even reducing that amount by two touchdowns is nothing to be proud of.

And neither is 10 unexcused absences.

Most of us, drawing upon only modest stores of common sense, can tell you that no unexcused absences should be tolerated. If a kid isn't in school, there had better be a good reason.

But if there must be some leeway, fine. Make it one or two. But 10? Unreal.

It's time for the Richmond County Board of Education to get real. Federal and state laws - threatening students with driver's license suspensions and schools with "No Child Left Behind" retribution - have set pretty low thresholds that the 10-absence limit is designed to meet. The Richmond County administration seems quite content to do the absolute minimum to get kids in school.

How sad.

The school board is really in charge, and need not go along with it.

If board members vote at their meeting this week to allow anything close to 10 unexcused absences, it will be a resounding statement that this county is still far from committed to education.

Shame on them if they do so.

Shame on us if we allow them.