What are they thinking? Fact is the majority of dropouts come from lower economic backgrounds. Some dropouts grow up in single parent families on welfare that don't have cars to withhold from their truant children. Many of the kids live in cities where they can take public transit to the mall to hang with their buddies all day. These kids couldn't care less about having a driver's license, they don't need it. Some of these kids drop out because their friends are doing it. Others see school as a trap where they don't get the help they need and are constantly confronted with their own failure. These are the kids who, even in the best scenario, will leave school and a driver's license may be the only thing keeping them from going on social assistance. There are many reasons why kids leave school, most of them socio-economic- maybe their parents don't value education. Punishing these kids won't solve these problems, it will just set them further apart. I'm surprised that Gerard Kennedy doesn't get it.
"Ontario has some American-style tough love in mind to discourage students from quitting high school. Teens who drop out before turning 18 or graduating won't be able to get or keep a driver's licence under what critics are calling 'punitive' and 'hare-brained' legislation proposed yesterday by Education Minister Gerard Kennedy."
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