Faced with budget shortfalls and a funding system that docks school budgets for student absences, many school administrators recommended yesterday that instead of participating in National Take Your Son or Daughter to Work Day, parents keep their kids in school. Instead of discussing what absences do to the budget, most administrators were blaming favorite boogeymen:
- Standardized testing.
- Swine Flu
- Madated curriculum content.
"Stakes have never been higher for student achievement," wrote Virginia B. McElyea, the superintendent of the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Ariz. "Every day your child is out of school his or her learning achievement suffers."
