Oprah did a poll and 62% of Americans say the government should forbid a teen of getting their license if they drop out (that saying there is not a medical or other certain reason).

Do you agree w/ this?

Sure I agree with it. It's just another incentive to keep a kid in school.

Sure I agree with it. It's just another incentive to keep a kid in school.

:yes

Yeah, I agree. A license is a priveledge, not a right. It can be taken away and I think that's a great idea. :yes It would take lots of different technicalities but I think it would be worth it to propose a bill for that nationwide.

Yes I agree

Yes, I think that is a good idea. I am assuming they could then get it though at age 18 right?

Yes, it would be for under 18 (I believe)

I think it's a great idea. I agree that it's a privledge, not a right!

Sure I agree with it. It's just another incentive to keep a kid in school.
:yes

Yes, why give kids the right to chose that at 16?

Are we going to get to hear the opinion of the person who voted no?

:thumbsup

I agree.

I think that it may be good. I can't think of a good reason for a kid to drop out of school. But I think if the reason wasn't justified for leaving school, then a suspension/prohibition of the right to a lisence may be appropriate. That's a toughie! I just hope that if something like this were passed, that kids that dropped out didn't drive without their lisence(as so many do these days) & cause fatal accidents.

Some states already do it. In Massachusetts you cannot get your drivers license before you are 18 if you drop out of highschool.

I absolutely agree!

Oh.. I voted yes :D

I think it's a great idea.

I said no. :D

As much as I am a HUGE believer in education and finishing school. Sometimes kids just can't do it. THey can't handle it, they get on the wrong path and have to struggle to get themselves back onto the right path on their own.

For instance, my BIL he just hit 18. He's been a drop out for the last 2.5 yrs. Although he has worked full time every day since he did drop out of school. he is just NOW getting into a GED program becuase he's figured the tricks in life. Did I agree with the choice to drop out. Hell no. I acutally would fight with him tooth and nail about it. But I also understand as much as we would like to force kids to stay in school you can't. You can make them stay in class every day till they graduate but you can not force them to take the tests, learn, homework. That is something they have to do on their own. If they denied kids to gain thier licenses then Ry wouldn't have wouldn't have been able to work and pay his way through the last 2 yrs.

If it was Anya, yes Id be beating down every single door to push her ass into school. But ultimately like I said previously I can not force her to want to learn or do the work. I can only keep reminding her how important graduating is in life.

No, getting a driver's license has nothing to do with school. It should be the PARENTS who stop their kids from getting their license if they drop out, NOT the Gov't. We already allow the Gov't to have too much control over our lives.

I thought that was a great idea! It's sad that it would have to come to that though. Children shouldn't need incentives to stay in school! I think it should just be the law that every child has to at least graduate high school or have a GED.

I said yes - I think 15 or 16 is a little young to get a drivers license anyway.

For those that said it should be up to the parents, I have a counter point. :) If the parents gave a damn about the kids in the first place, they would not allow them to drop out of school. So obviously the parents won't care if they have a license or not.

Some states already do it. In Massachusetts you cannot get your drivers license before you are 18 if you drop out of highschool.

I know a lot of people who dropped out recently & have thier licenses:dunno There's a loophole there somewhere.

Yea, but on another note, its not the Government's responsibility to raise children properly. And a teenager graduating high school is not only the responsiblity of the parents but also the school system, so if anything the incentives should be in education, rather than such a random thing such as driving. I mean what will we allow the government to do next to kids that parents should be responsible for?
But also, another reason I say no is because I don't think it will stop anyone who will not graduate high school from getting a license, they can get one anyway at 18, when many students should still be in HS anyway, so all they have to do is just wait a teeny bit longer and they can Still drop out if they really wanted to.
The problem of high school dropouts is very serious, and I feel the solution needs to start in schools, and if the government should get involved it should start by them putting more funding and efforts towards public schools and programs for teenagers and getting better pay for high quality teachers and getting more high quality teachers and programs in low-income areas, rather than wasting time and money making ridiculous laws like this one and once again just trying to put a little band-aid on a HUGE bleeding injury on society.

I couldn't agree more with your point about funding :yes I don't have a big problem with the government as a whole stepping in where society has royally screwed up - SOMEBODY has to raise our kids, and if the parents won't do it why say that the government shouldn't? Somebody needs to be there, one way or another.

I know a lot of people who dropped out recently & have thier licenses:dunno There's a loophole there somewhere.

If you get it BEFORE you drop out they don't revoke it ;) They just don't allow you to get it if you have already dropped out.

For those that said it should be up to the parents, I have a counter point. :) If the parents gave a damn about the kids in the first place, they would not allow them to drop out of school. So obviously the parents won't care if they have a license or not.

I agree.

My mom forced my older sister to drop out of school to care for me and my little sister when she was 16. She is 10 years older than me. She did get her GED though.

My mom was going to force me to drop out as well because she was sick of dealing with me getting picked on and she wanted a 24 hour maid of course (aka, me) but I was tested and they advanced me so I graduated at 16 anyway. Then I started part time college and worked full time and also ran the entire house for my mom. I moved out at 17, I couldn't handle how I was treated anymore.

My mom let my little sister drop out when she was 16 then she didn't make her work, get her GED... NOTHING. She sat in her room and did nothing all day. My mom was perfectly fine with that because that was her "baby". My little sister is now 21, she lives in Florida with her b/f who also doens't have a diploma or anything either. His dad owns an oil company and payes thier rent a year in advance and gives them a 5k a month allowance for all other bills AND bought them a 2004 Expedition out right for the sons band to use for gigs :rolleyes . They actually blow through that 5k a month and ask my mom for money and my mom sends it to them freely. If someone really cared about them they'd make them grow the F up and learn how to be responsible. Neither of them have ever had a job.

Ok I am done... lol

some parents don't know that their kids have dropped out. that seems hard to believe but they don't. i had this friend who dropped out, pretended like she went to school everyday but then came home after her mom left for work. they would just scan in old report cards and print them after changing the classes/teachers/grades.

Ok so from that, I can understand how parents may need to sometimes be pushed to get their students to finish school rather than encourage them to drop-out. Perhaps penalizing parents for allowing students to drop out financially or in some other way, or changing laws about when students can drop out. I still dont think taking away driver's licenses will help the situation any or is any kind of even small solution for the problem. There are lots of ways around something like that, like it was just mentioned, a student could just get their license first and THEN drop out. The law is pretty pointless, teenagers are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, yes even the dropouts. Again, these situations mentioned just show how much the government could put their efforts in other ways towards this issue rather than try to put a little band-aid on it.

some parents don't know that their kids have dropped out. that seems hard to believe but they don't. i had this friend who dropped out, pretended like she went to school everyday but then came home after her mom left for work. they would just scan in old report cards and print them after changing the classes/teachers/grades.

Where I grew up you can't drop out before the age of 18 without parental consent.

For those that said it should be up to the parents, I have a counter point. :) If the parents gave a damn about the kids in the first place, they would not allow them to drop out of school. So obviously the parents won't care if they have a license or not.

And to that. Sometimes a parent has doen EVERYTHING humanly possible, even have gone to the point of calling the police and reporting their child. What else is a parent to do? I used to feel the same way but now that Im out of my wayward life I look back at my situation. What was my mom as a single parent to do? Loose her job to walk my 17 yr old ass to school and sit with me? She already got in enough trouble for taking time off to come hunt me down off the streets. I don't know how many times I was picked up by the police for ditching. And legally there is nothing a court can do about a ditcher if they are not being a danger to society. At least here in San Diego that is.

Where I grew up you can't drop out before the age of 18 without parental consent.

Same with where I'm from:thumbsup I think it's good that way

Same with where I'm from:thumbsup I think it's good that way

Yah because we're form the same place :P I grew up in Mass ;)

And to that. Sometimes a parent has doen EVERYTHING humanly possible, even have gone to the point of calling the police and reporting their child. What else is a parent to do? I used to feel the same way but now that Im out of my wayward life I look back at my situation. What was my mom as a single parent to do? Loose her job to walk my 17 yr old ass to school and sit with me? She already got in enough trouble for taking time off to come hunt me down off the streets. I don't know how many times I was picked up by the police for ditching. And legally there is nothing a court can do about a ditcher if they are not being a danger to society. At least here in San Diego that is.

here in houston at least you can be prosecuted with a misdemeanor for skipping school if you are still enrolled in school. if you are picked up by the police or the school calls your parent and they call the police you will be brought to court and charged with truancy. plus if you miss X amount of days you are held back or you can't graduate.

here in houston at least you can be prosecuted with a misdemeanor for skipping school if you are still enrolled in school. if you are picked up by the police or the school calls your parent and they call the police you will be brought to court and charged with truancy. plus if you miss X amount of days you are held back or you can't graduate.

true but its not hard around it at all. You can go to school, not do anything for certain amount of X days then miss a certain number of X days before they would take you to court. I always got picked up, taken to the station and my mom called. Never once made it to court cause I was never over a certain amount of days.

But I still think its wrong to say that just cause a child is a drop out the parent doesn't care, is wrong. You never know how much a parent puts into unless you are there to know. There are hundreds of parents out there that feel like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with their kids. Its not always black and white. As easy as it may seem to some to force a teen to attend school, it's not. There are always other factors to the puzzle that need attention too.

JMO.

I think it's a great idea. I agree that it's a privledge, not a right!

:yes

Yeah, I agree. A license is a priveledge, not a right. It can be taken away and I think that's a great idea. :yes It would take lots of different technicalities but I think it would be worth it to propose a bill for that nationwide.

:yes I agree.

Yah because we're form the same place :P I grew up in Mass ;)

I clearly don't connect things whatsoever!:lmao I remember someone on here was from Mass, but I forgot it was you:giggle

I said NO, I don't see what getting a drivers license has to do with going to school. There is NO connection!! We already have too much gov't interference......

true but its not hard around it at all. You can go to school, not do anything for certain amount of X days then miss a certain number of X days before they would take you to court. I always got picked up, taken to the station and my mom called. Never once made it to court cause I was never over a certain amount of days.

But I still think its wrong to say that just cause a child is a drop out the parent doesn't care, is wrong. You never know how much a parent puts into unless you are there to know. There are hundreds of parents out there that feel like they are stuck between a rock and a hard place with their kids. Its not always black and white. As easy as it may seem to some to force a teen to attend school, it's not. There are always other factors to the puzzle that need attention too.

JMO.

i didn't mean to imply that i thought the parents didn't care that their child drops out.

I disgree because I wanted to stay in school, but my parents pulled us out. But, I did get my GED, but that would of meant that I would of not gotten my license because of my parents. Not my fault. I would have pissed.

If the kids drop out, they'll probably get a job somewhere, so I think they should let them have one. The kids I know would probably drive without one anyway.
After they work for a while and realize that they don't want to flip burgers for the rest of their lives, they'll probably go back to school anyway . If they make them stay in school, they'd probably just keep failing until they turn 18 and are able to get licenses.

They're supposed to take your license if you drop out of school where I live. However, the schools hardly ever bother to report anyone that has dropped out to the DMV.
I dropped out of public school (without being reported to the DMV) to go to an alternative high school offered by the community college (Middle College) that provided a self paced, college like environment and was considered to be quite prestigious. The school also would have hours beginning in the afternoon and it would have allowed me to avoid missing school for prenatal checkups and the morning sickness that was a huge problem when I was attending public school. This was a decision that would have made my education better, but when I went to enroll the first thing they wanted to do was have me fill out a form so they could report me to the DMV and have my license revoked. They only way to enroll in this school was to have previously dropped out of the public school system. This school also doesn't provide transportation. Could someone explain this to me? I personally don't think I sould be punished for attempting to go to a more prestigious school and an educational environment better suited to my needs. I ended up out of school much longer than necessary because I waited until I was 18 to start again and avoid having my license revoked.
Sure, the law wasn't designed to screw over Middle College students but it surely does. I've had quite a few ex-friends drop out because they would rather sit around and smoke pot and all of them are still licensed to drive because the school didn't care enough to inform the DMV. It seems the only way to get reported is to enroll in school after dropping out (which is, of course, asanine considering one would then be doing what the law wanted one to do in the first place: go to school).
I don't really think the law was a bad idea, but it certainly isn't working here. The kids that drop out from school for no reason aren't going anywhere anyway. The ones who seek optertunities to stay in school despite problems they may have get their licenses revoked so they can't get to the alternative schools, or work, or whatever. Bad kids who don't care are not the people being punished. Before this law goes national it definately needs to have the kinks worked out.

For those that said it should be up to the parents, I have a counter point. :) If the parents gave a damn about the kids in the first place, they would not allow them to drop out of school. So obviously the parents won't care if they have a license or not.
Unfortuantly I am a high school drop out. I did get my GED. I have my own reasons for dropping out. My parents did give a damn about me. My mom was heart broken I dropped out. But there wasn't anything she could do about it and she knew it. I was 15 and she worked. She couldnt drop me off at school and sit there to make sure I didnt leave. I got my GED the same year I woulda graduated. I wanted it that way.

As far as the license goes, for me, it would NOT of been an incentive to stay in school. I didn't get my license til I was 20 anyhow. I had very valid reasons for dropping out.

My mom should not be punished for something I did. I will say that in the state of WA it was hard. My freshman year I caught pnemonial bronchitis and missed more then 13 days of school. Lost all my credits. You can only miss so many days...Second semester I ran away. Missed more then alloted and lost most of those credits. There went my 9th grade year. Moved and started a new school. But instead of being in a highschool lik ebefore I was in a junior high repeating 9th grade. Thats where I had issues. Because of those issues I told my mom. SHe could try to make me go but I wouldnt. I was never going back. Then at 16 moved to CA. I was NOT gonna be a 16 year old freshman. So I stayed out of school and worked on my GED. I enrolled myself into a free class that helped you prep for it etc. I wasn't an irresponsible kid. I wasnt into drugs like my brother and sister. See my brother and sister finished school. But both got HEAVILY into drugs and alcohol. I was the drop out. But never got involved with any of that :shrug

But please dont say parents of kids that drop out do not give a damn. There is more there then what meets the eye and usually alot of different circumstances that surrond the issue at hand.