School Attendance Enforcement

Probably wasn't a surprise to learn the appearance being prosecuted over the kids not going to school didn't turn up to court. So the reason the justice wheel turned so slowly is, of course, partially because of people like that. I doubt any court action, by the way, will achieve a lot in this specific case, but then you can argue it probably wasn't supposed to. See, governments prosecuting parents over non-school attendance is a sad. But good policy at the same time sad, because we've got to this point, good, because what it will achieve is a chilling effect for those who may not get to court but could have. So the reason they didn't was because of the test cases we hear this week, like the school phone ban, see? You know the school phone ban, not everyone follows it. It's not bulletproof, but it's effective. Chilling effects are not to be underestimated. The light system. And the job seeker is another good example. When there were no consequences for not looking for work, it's amazing how many people were happy to take the invitation not to do anything. Offer them a bit of stick, all of a sudden the number of people who fail and reach red and get a benefit cut becomes negligible. Once again, what a tragedy that there seem so many who are happy to, you know, waste their life away. But the lowest common denominator is in fact quite common, given how many frequent it. Doubly sad, of course, when it comes to kids in school. It's not their fault the parents are wasters and you run the risk that the habits are contagious and the kid carries the waster gene for another generation. So no, the initial prosecution this week will involve the worst of the reprobates and no, it most likely won't make a jot of difference. But enough people will see it and hear it and it'll be around the school grounds and word will spread and with that for some anyway, what might have been will be avoided. It may well be that if a handful of kids get to go to school properly it might eventually benefit. If it, I saw, see it takes a tough government to take their people to court over something as fundamental as education, certainly previous ones haven't been interested. And that is why in part we've ended up where we are, but potentially also at a point where a bit of tough love could pay off.