Aohell

Why Not Walkout?

The United States is coming up on the anniversary of the pro-immigration demonstration marches.

Schools everywhere are bracing for the possibility of a repeat of last year's student walkouts. They're threatening students with disciplinary action should they leave school for political purposes.

They're doing it so they can keep their average daily attendance, or ADA up. ADA is included in the formula for school funding. Should all the Hispanic kids take off for three days, the schools stand to lose some major cash.

This means those Hispanic kids have power. Lots of it. By walking out, they may get some suspensions, but the school system gets whacked. What's more, the Hispanic kids in Texas have an easy countermeasure: If the schools discipline them for walking out, they can simply refuse to take the TAKS test.

If the entire Hispanic subpopulation fails the TAKS test, every school in the state will be found non-performing and will come under stricter state supervision. Students can't be disciplined for doing poorly on a test, especially should such discipline be targeting a specific minority subpopulation.

I think students all over Texas should protest the TAKS test by refusing to take it and breaking the system from within, but, hey, that's just me. If students refuse to be treated like cattle with numbers, maybe then we could see some real school reform. We could give the kids what they want, and then they wouldn't have a reason to walk out of schools.