Windy City To Hose Runny Nose

Chicago Trib examines whether 8th graders should have to have even a remote grasp on math (fractions, decimals, percentages) in order to be promoted to 9th grade (currently: no; proposal: yes).

Buried: How many unexcused absences per year before you flunk a kid for the year?

CPS Chieftain Arne Duncan wants to reduce that number from 18 (out of 180 days) to 9.

Key word here is “unexcused.” If you use the “doctor’s note” standard, then you make life difficult on the honest parent without insurance (who uses E.R. for everything, and they don’t like writing notes for sore throats). If you use the “mom’s note” standard, then you open a loophole bigger than Sammy Sosa’s biceps (in his Cubs prime).

Either way, it’s brutal on principals vying to be both consistent and humane.

– Guest blogger Goldstein Gone Wild