There’s a reason “The Engagement Center” will be the “first-of-its-kind”, because it’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard.

I’m not a fan of No Child Left Behind, and agree that everything should be done to make schools accessible to kids everywhere, but part of the problem with public education is the idea that you can force someone to learn.

This new truancy center, which Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday, is designed to give students who miss 38 days of school some extra help.

This is my point. A focus, funding, should be given to the students that at least show up to school. Who are we kidding, what makes you think that a kid that misses 38 days at a regular school is going to go a special “engagement center” that targets all of the kids just like them.

North Carolina isn’t even respectable right now as far as education is concerned, but at least when I was in school, if you missed 10 days you automatically failed.

Students that continuously underperform, or are ushered through the education process with a less than acceptable standard, do not benefit anyone. The only outcome is the devaluation of a high school diploma, which leads to the inflation of a college degree which I discussed in my post, Student Loans: What They Don’t Understand.

38 days missed is over a month. Let that simmer for a minute. Do you really think that’s a student that is going to let anyone force them to learn. It’s time to hold students responsible for their lack of concern. Taxpayers shouldn’t front the bill because someone doesn’t want to be helped.

You can take the kid to school, but you can never make them learn.