[Magdalen] School-to-prison pipeline, the ugly Spring Valley school arrest

[Jim Guthrie]

>As I observed, that is an administrative burden.  It also means that a school's 
>budget can take a significant hit if there's a disease outbreak, which happens 
>regularly with the younger children, that hits attendance.

Actually it is a remnant of an earlier time -- and though school districts get 
docked, nowadays it's an insignificant part of funding formulas, so a disaster 
or disease outbreak would be insignificant in the larger scheme of things.

Test Scores, ability to raise income locally and lots of other factors play into 
funding formulas nowadays. Some state subtract a portion of federal aid, which 
is mostly based on performance. Some states, like New York, reward districts 
with high taxes with higher state funding (which, in NY, leaves poorer cities 
like Utica and Binghamton  have little tax base and thus get a smaller amount of 
state aid.

This also means that places like the New York Suburbs with lots of high earners 
with the ability to pay high property taxes get relatively large amounts in per 
pupil aid. Liberals have managed to add other things to the formula -- more 
money for poverty areas, more money for large immigrant populations and the 
like. But they've also had to trade with the GOP which prides itself on 
extracting the most dollars for the constituencies.

Add to that the upstate/rural Republicans from economically-depressed areas who 
get elected running against New York City --and then in their efforts to make 
sure their local (ex) farmers don’t send a dime to NYC, end up not getting any 
of those dimes either.

Another factor is the much wider use if suspension/expulsion for even minor 
offenses these days, especially with minority students. If districts cared one 
whit about their aid formulas based on attendance, this would not be happening.

All in all, truancy made a difference 50 years ago, but in every state, it is 
now a drop in the bucket. Truant officers and the like no longer exist in most 
districts as an attendance administrator to keep track is much more economically 
efficient.

Cheers,
Jim