I was once walking down the street in the middle of the day on a weekday, and I literally had a cop stop me, thinking I was a high school student playing hookie from school.
Wait what? Is it the police’s job to make sure kids go to school in the US? What if they’re from a family that can’t even afford public school tuition? That’s so foreign to me. Cutting class should be frowned upon but not to the point of being harassed by police.
There is no tuition at public schools. (K-12, ages 5-18 approximately.) There are private schools that some choose to enroll their kids in; often these are religious in nature. And these private schools do charge tuition. But children of a certain age are legally required to attend school of some form:
Most states do allow home schooling with various degrees of requirements therein. But yes, school attendance is required. If a 14 year old is just wandering down the sidewalk at a time they should be in school, they absolutely can be stopped by the police.
I genuinely believed (some number of) people would homeschool because regular school is too expensive. Interesting. American schools being free by default is really unexpected, especially given how expensive tertiary education is over there, and especially with the volume of complaints I hear about American school education being low quality. The free drinking water at restaurants thing is also unexpected to me.
It’s just weird that police have that responsibility there. I don’t get it. Getting questioned over being outside? I get that. Getting stopped? Weird.
In my part of the world (Lebanon) homeschooling isn’t really a thing. Public schools are seen as the cheaper, worse alternative, with many students who were kicked out of private schools continuing their education there. Teachers there get paid dirt and the buildings are often crumbling. Very few have a noteworthy reputation.
Most schools are private, not all that expensive, and usually religiously affiliated. That’s the default option. Then you have a very small number of expensive private schools mostly full of more affluent people.
The curriculum was last updated in like 1992 though which isn’t good lol
Wait what? Is it the police’s job to make sure kids go to school in the US? What if they’re from a family that can’t even afford public school tuition? That’s so foreign to me. Cutting class should be frowned upon but not to the point of being harassed by police.
An example of the law in Texas:
https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FA/htm/FA.65.htm
There is no tuition at public schools. (K-12, ages 5-18 approximately.) There are private schools that some choose to enroll their kids in; often these are religious in nature. And these private schools do charge tuition. But children of a certain age are legally required to attend school of some form:
https://legal-info.lawyers.com/research/education-law/chart-age-requirements-for-compulsory-education-in-all-50-states.html
Most states do allow home schooling with various degrees of requirements therein. But yes, school attendance is required. If a 14 year old is just wandering down the sidewalk at a time they should be in school, they absolutely can be stopped by the police.
I genuinely believed (some number of) people would homeschool because regular school is too expensive. Interesting. American schools being free by default is really unexpected, especially given how expensive tertiary education is over there, and especially with the volume of complaints I hear about American school education being low quality. The free drinking water at restaurants thing is also unexpected to me.
It’s just weird that police have that responsibility there. I don’t get it. Getting questioned over being outside? I get that. Getting stopped? Weird.
In my part of the world (Lebanon) homeschooling isn’t really a thing. Public schools are seen as the cheaper, worse alternative, with many students who were kicked out of private schools continuing their education there. Teachers there get paid dirt and the buildings are often crumbling. Very few have a noteworthy reputation.
Most schools are private, not all that expensive, and usually religiously affiliated. That’s the default option. Then you have a very small number of expensive private schools mostly full of more affluent people.
The curriculum was last updated in like 1992 though which isn’t good lol