
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 24, 1995                   TAG: 9509260102
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

PUBLIC EDUCATION

ROANOKE CITY'S school system, with one of the worst student-attendance rates in Virginia, is taking some serious steps this year to try to improve its record. And with good cause:

Truancy and de facto truancy - habitual and unnecessary absences on trumped-up excuses - are often linked to poor academic performance and increased incidence of dropping out of school and juvenile crime. Truancy devalues a community's investment in public schools, and its legitimate interest in ensuring that young people get the best possible public education.

Central-city schools have been particularly hard hit on this score, but they are not the only ones to face attendance problems. Recently, for instance, Pulaski County School Superintendent Bill Asbury targeted the issue as one that principals and teachers must address.

In Pulaski, it seems the crux of the problem is that schools have been too generous in giving students their walking papers - the result being that about a quarter of all the county's students attend classes for only part of the school day, including 103 of the county's 329 seniors.

At Pulaski County High School, an extraordinarily high percentage of the students participate in ``work-release programs.'' (An unfortunate name, since it's usually associated with prisons. What it means is that students have permission to leave school early to report to jobs.)

Other school-approved reasons for skipping out early include students' community-service work outside the classroom. Many get the "go" sign because they have already accumulated a fair number of credits toward graduation.

Asbury is right: ``If credits are the only reason our kids are in school, we're in trouble.'' Education, after all, is not just punching a time card.

And he's right again: Public schools do kids no favor sanctioning too many ``good'' excuses for part-time attendance.

Consider just the financial aspect. Some of those part-timers will end up having to pay for remedial courses either in college or to get up to speed for a job because they passed up educational opportunities in public school.

That's one bit of reasoning, and there are others, that all school systems should be pressing on their absentees.

by CNB