They claim it's not about money. Yeah. Sure.

Once again, I'm gonna break it down for you in the simplest manner possible...so pay attention! IF A TEENAGER DOESN'T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL, HE'S NOT GOING TO GO TO SCHOOL. End of story. You can tell us all about how you're trying to "save a child's future", but give me a break.

I spent a grand total of 13.5 years (not including summer school) in the Angleton Independent School District, and I had plenty of teachers. Most of them couldn't give that rat's proverbial fat ass about their students' future. Don't get me wrong, I had plenty of them that did care...but most didn't. Sure, they put on a good show about how they were "doing their part, FOR THE CHILDREN", but at the end of the day, they were there for the paycheck.

Regardless of whether the teachers care about their students or not, one thing I noticed about teachers while in school was common amongst both of these groups...if you weren't there to do what you were told, your teacher didn't want you taking up space in his/her classroom.

The teachers who were concerned about their students didn't want you there because you were taking up valuable time that could be better spent on children interested in learning. The ones who didn't care about their students didn't want you there, because when you started flunking, it made them look bad and caused them more paperwork.

Neither set really wanted to deal with you.

Now, let's look at the parental angle here. If you are a kid in this day and age, there's a very strong chance that you're going to be living in a "single-parent" home. Even if you have a father and mother at home (regardless of whether they are your biological or "step-parents"), there's also a great chance that both of them will have a JOB. Yes, that thing that most people go to when they need to do things like eat, pay a mortgage, et cetera. This is also the thing that keeps a parent from knowing exactly what his/her child is doing during every waking hour of every day.

We have a state law that's been in effect for a decade or so now, that says a child residing in the state of Texas must attend a public school for 90% of the school year, if that child is not currently enrolled in either a private learning institution or a "home-schooling" program.

If the child does not attend school for the required amount of time, without a "valid" excuse, that child is guilty of a CRIME. This crime is punishable by monetary fines, juvenile probation, court-ordered drug testing of both the child AND the parent, and even lockdown in a juvenile detention facility.

So your kid misses a bunch of school, it's YOU that gets dragged into court over the matter. It's YOU that risks losing your job. It's YOU that has to pay a fine, pay for court-ordered counseling, court-ordered drug testing, et cetera. It's YOU that has to provide a sample of your blood, saliva, or urine for court-ordered drug testing.

If YOU fail to comply with these court orders, so ordered because your child wanted to skip school and play nintendo, it's YOU who risks harsher monetary fines and/or incarceration for contempt of court...because YOU were busy working, instead of watching your teenage offspring 24/7.

And they claim it's not about money. Yeah. Right. Every time a child is locked in a juvenile detention center, that center gets a certain amount of money from the state. More importantly, however, the school district gets approximately $22 PER DAY, PER STUDENT, for every teenage ass taking up space in the school district's chairs. Court-ordered "counselors" get paid, and most of their income is derived from court-ordered counseling sessions. County officials taking drug-test samples are getting paid to perform court-ordered drug tests. And the list goes on.

Not about the money, huh? Yeah, right. Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining...