At some point in our educational lives we stop and think about “What am I doing here?” and “Why do I need to go to school?” Yes, yes, school. A fundamental aspect of our daily lives that continuously follows us throughout our life. Although the majority of people can agree that education is important on some level- either because it gets you a job, connections, etc.- there is always that one kid in your class that complains about why they got to come school and before you know it they have pulled you into a never ending rant. But at some point you have to stop and think about why is school mandatory? The educational system is an institution that contains power and influences the way a society functions.
People think freedom should be associated with school because state law requires children to go to school or to at least possess basic knowledge. As a result, state governments have not made education a choice, but legally compulsory. But not only is it a legal issue, it is also culturally compulsory. Ivan Illich, an Austrian philosopher and roman Catholic priest, had argued that the “State shall make no law with respect to the establishment of education,” because state and education should be separated. Even if school were to be made voluntary, the educational system would remain mandatory. The fact is that we live in a society that values the importance of going to college and earning all of these higher education credentials. Many of us think that education is the only path to adulthood and that it is one of the ways that you obtain a high-paying job. As a result, the younger generations will continue to attend school because they want to go to college and they also want to have a good impression on their parents by attending a prestigious college. Even if we implement a law that declares that school is voluntary, there should be another law that forbids discrimination against previous attendance for jobs, voting, and learning centers.
Those legal requirements have other cultural effects. On the other hand you also have a society in which employers view educational credentials as a way to dictate who gets hired. Think of it in this way: school transcripts and degrees become an indirect form of membership, so you have a system that invests so much money into these forms of membership in order to get the job that they want. Despite the stigma that surrounds mandatory school, the goal here is no to abolish the educational system. Instead of having school be an obligatory aspect of life, school should be fine as an option for people who want it. The legal establishment of school lead to this idea that the only way to life and adulthood is to go to school. It is why school has become such an integrated part of our lives because we are able to have a prosperous future and succeed in life. But how have we succumbed to such a narrow understanding of education? Simply put, when anything is legally mandatory, it becomes universal, and when anything is universal for long enough, the culture forgets that there were ever any alternatives.
Those that argue that school should be mandatory declare that school helps students to experience what they want to do in life. However, there is no evidence that supports that increasing the age of required schooling, is no different than decreasing the age requirement. In a research paper by Grover J. Whitehurst, a senior fellow in Governance Studies and director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, as well as Sarah Whitfield, a Financial and Administrative Assistant in the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution, investigate different policy changes that have been implemented by State and Federal laws. They first begin with President Barack Obama, who in his State of the Union address, stated that he would increase the age of compulsory school attendance (CSA) to 18.
The research and analysis conducted by Grover and Sarah, suggest that states with higher CSA ages do not have higher high school graduation rate than those with lower CSA ages.The authors also compose various graphs throughout their paper to present their findings in a way that supports their argument because through those graphs the reader can observe that there is no significant change in the trend lines for states that have higher CSA ages and those that don’t. Although, raising the CSA age may have no drastic effect, it may induce school dropouts to stay in school for a few weeks or months longer in order to reach the legal age at which they can leave school. Some of these students will experience positive long-term effects such as employment and college-going, as a result of receiving more schooling.
But if schools decide to raise the CSA age, won’t that mean that that schools would have to hire more staff and the possibility of more school building? Well not necessarily. They also offer commentary about their findings and further develop on what their findings might mean to further policy changes in education. There is acknowledgement about the effects of raising the CSA age such as having to hire more staff and the possibility of more school building. But this is countered by the fact that fewer schools will comply to increasing the CSA age, so the vast majority of schools won’t have to worry about these issues.
Yet the debate over compulsory school attendance extends not only to students and parents but also to lawmakers and government officials. A legislator in Arizona has said that there should be no compulsory education, and he wants to repeal a state law that mandates that young people attend school. He is an Arizona lawmaker and extremely conservative freshman Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives from Lake Havasu City, Paul Mosley. Mosley believes that education is fundamental for our future generations and promotes good equality education with competition (district, charter, and private).
Education used to be something that was privileged to you. But now education is forced down on every kid because we believe that it is the only thing that can provides us with hope for the future. Therefore, Mosley stated that since education still remains a privilege, school should not be mandatory because it will eliminated those who don't want to be there in the first place since they serve as a distraction for kids who do want to be at school. Which is understandable because educational institutions should devote their resources to students who take advantage of a free-public education. At the same time, public money should be used for students to attend private and religious schools in order for them to afford the education that will inspire them to work harder and to set goals for themselves.
The Supreme Court has played a role in the education system. For example, the case Wisconsin v. Yoder establish that Amish parents can withdraw their kids from school after 8th grade. Other court rulings have allowed exemptions as well, such as withdrawing due to religious events or students who can prove that they are in danger by attending school or who are mentally disabled. There are also arguments that declare that education is not only seen as ticket for a better life but is essential for the health of our democratic enterprise.
School attendance is important for students and there are benefits they can receive by going to school on a daily basis. The most obvious reason of why school should be mandatory is that students are more likely to succeed in their academics if they attend school regularly. By making school mandatory, students will be able to engage in an environment that will prepare them for future success and guide them into what they are interested in. If students decide not to go to class, it will make it difficult for the teacher and the class to build a relationship that promotes skills and progress if you have a students continuosly missing class. Therefore, the students who are putting the effort to go to school will fall behind because their other peers will be behind track on the material that they have discussed and everyone will have to accommodate to those who are unaware of what the teacher is teaching.
In addition, if school attendance is not made mandatory, then students are more likely to get into trouble with the law and cause problems to communities. When you have students who are motivated to learn and interact with others, they are going to choose to dropout of school and do things that are not beneficial to them such as spending most of their time on the streets and getting involved in drugs and other things that the mind might deem as curiosity. Education is a valuable mechanism to herd those who are lost and to allow students the opportunity to discover new concepts and ideas that might interest them and hopefully get them to make a better life for themselves.
Although mandatory compulsory school may seem like a drag, if it weren't for the laws that are in place, most of us would not be where we are. For a few students on the fence, attending class more often will make the difference between a pass and a fail, and some of our students do need a push in the right direction. But what worries me more about mandatory attendance is a negative unintended consequence. University instructors unaccustomed to unruly and disrespectful students are in for shock. They will be spending more effort on classroom management and it will negatively affect their ability to teach. Effort expended on making the courses more relevant, interesting, and engaging without lowering standards is a far better return on investment. If a course is compelling, students will gladly attend and value the lessons you deliver. Isn't that better than forcing them to sit through a dull lecture?