June 23, 2008 No More Driving While Uneducated By David Dodenhoff, Ph.D.
The question is, how
can we persuade more Wisconsin youngsters to finish high school?
Lightbourn and White acknowledge that “the answer to that question has
proven to be very elusive.” I don’t claim to have
the answer myself, but I am going to suggest an
answer: deny a driver’s license to anyone who does not have a high
school diploma. After, say, a two-year phase-in period, anyone over 18
years of age who did not have a diploma would no longer qualify to
receive a driver’s license. Anyone 18 years or younger who was not on
a path to receive a diploma also would not qualify for a driver’s
license. This status could be
reversible. A 20-year-old, for example, who returned to school and
earned a diploma (or equivalent) could apply for and receive a license,
as could a 16-year-old who dropped out of school temporarily but then
got back on the path toward graduation. If there was no diploma in your
future, though, there would be no driver’s license, either. Denying a driver’s
license to those without a diploma isn’t just a gratuitous punishment.
It is, instead, a way of making the undereducated feel the consequences
of their choices. Being unable to drive can have adverse consequences
for one’s personal convenience, social status, relationships, job
opportunities, and overall freedom of movement. The same consequences
are associated with not having a high school diploma. It is far better
that Wisconsin youth start learning that lesson at 16—when there is
still ample time to right the ship—than at 18, when they attempt to
make it in the world with only an eighth-grade education. Critics of this
proposal will naturally ask, “If we do what you suggest, won’t we
just be consigning high school dropouts to an even worse fate than they
face now?” Almost certainly. In fact, that is the idea. What one
hopes, though, is that we will have far fewer dropouts in the first
place—that the highly undesirable consequences of dropping out will
serve as a powerful incentive to complete high school. To insist on those
consequences is called having the courage of your convictions. It’s
something any healthy society must do.
|
|||||
©2008 Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc. P.O. Box 487 Thiensville, WI 53092 |
|||||