Who could possibly have seen this coming?
…this qualifies as national news?
I mean, it’s funny enough to make the cut in my opinion.
Exactly. It gave me a chuckle.
fuck this government and it draconian measures of fining parents of truant kids.
fuck this government going after home school families.
fuck this government and it ripping out the current standards instead of just fixing bits that need fixing
fuck this government for trying to removing Te Reo and Tiriti O Waitangi from education curriculum
just fuck the government in general
Eh, it seems to have lit a fire under most of the parents.
If your kid is missing more than half the school year maybe you should show up in court and explain yourself
Did the article say that? It seems to not mention this case, and refers to Seymour’s claim that school is only open half the days of the year so it shouldn’t be hard to get them there.
Seymour said schools were only open for about 180 days a year, which left 185 days for other activities. “You only have to show up to school like 50 percent of the days. I don’t think that’s too much,” he said.
I took that as the parents being prosecuted were letting their kids miss over 50% of the school year which I find to be completely unacceptable. If you are at that point then you can explain yourself in court and hey you might have a good reason like a family member with a terminal illness or doing schooling outside the system but you should be checked if you’re in that situation.
I think what he meant is that showing up 90% of the school days is about half the year. From memory I think 90% is the target.
This article doesn’t seem to talk specifically about the prosecuted parents so I understand that he’s talking about the general target.
I suspect this very small number of parents being prosecuted are likely to be actually getting their kids there less than half the time, but this is unlikely to be the best way to do it. They cut the middle stuff like school lunches and free busses for kids, so they have just show up or we will prosecute you.
it is a real offence against your children’s future," he said.
not actually as big of a deal when the school has too many children in the class due to education budget cuts, as it’ll help all the other kids in the class have more time with the teacher
