NCJ Number
168073
Date Published
1996
Length
76 pages
Annotation
This special edition of the U.S. Department of Education's Daily Education News presents newspaper articles that report on President Clinton's anti-truancy initiative announced at a National Education Association meeting on July 3, 1996; articles describe the initiative, the President's comments, and offer opinions on the program, both pro and con.
Abstract
The program involves $10 million dollars in grants to 25 school districts that propose to develop innovative programs for addressing truancy. To assist in this effort, the White House will send a manual on combatting truancy to all of the school districts in the Nation. This effort is based in a concern that truancy leads to delinquency, both while not in school and due to the likelihood of school failure. Some newspaper articles presented in this edition simply report on the announcement of the program and associated comments by President Clinton. Others are editorials or comments by syndicated columnists. Much of the criticism of the program is based in the belief that the Federal Government should not be involved in any school issue, since schools are the responsibility of State and local government. Articles that support the effort view it as needed Federal support for efforts to develop effective truancy programs that can help address a nationwide problem that fosters costly delinquent behavior.