Truancy response

A reader sent this wonderful response to our Tuesday Truancy story. This may or may not be a feasible answer - that's not really my place to say. It is, however, the type of discourse that yields positive results, especially in a judicial election year.

The reader wrote the following.

"Here's an approach we may can take:

As I'm sure you're aware, automobile insurance companies offer a discount rate for families that have their children insured with them if they make good grades in school. Why can't we do the same for our schools? If a student remains in school, offer the parents a state income tax break. Parents will soon realize that it's much more of a financially sound incentive to push their children to remain in school. If the children are truant for more than three days or drop out of school then the tax break would be negated. I think that if parents took hits in their pocketbooks they would be more responsible for their children's actions."

I invite anyone to respond to this idea.

Stop the Violence...

Here are some pictures from this weekends Stop the Violence Fun Day. It really was very uplifting. Lots of folks were out enjoying the great weather.

The Stop the Violence group met again last night. Here's the story.
One of the most (potentially) important things to come out of the meeting was the announcement that the Family Links program will be applying for a Department of Justice grant called the "Weed and Seed program.

Th e grant seems like a really good fit for Anniston, combining elements of law enforcement and revitalization. The question yet to be answered is whether the essential players are willing to play along. Because it is holistic in approach, all the parts have to work together to make the whole.

Often these types of grants can come across as accusatory. Those who are already out pounding the pavement arresting the bad guys or providing services for those considered "at risk" are working as hard as they can. I'm trying to work up another article to describe the program in more detail, perhaps even visit another Weed and Seed site in Al.