Uh, bottom line is that attending school is a priviledge, not a right, even if it is a government school. If you don't like it, home school or cough up the money and go to private school. The child will get a better education anyway.

Parents must stop abrogating their responsibilities and get involved with their own childrens' education.

StrikitRich:

Parents must stop abrogating their responsibilities and get involved with their own childrens' education.


Hear, hear..! There is a MAJOR lack of parental participation, especially in California schools. And my sis-in-law, who's a pub school teacher, says it all comes down to selfishness on the parents' part. With both parents working to maintain a keeping-up-with-the-Jones' lifestyle, and (illegal?) immigrant nannies raising their kids -- the situation is ripe for some idiotic pencil pusher to come up with this kind of lamebrain scheme.

Now, if you want to get a good teacher really riled up... ask 'em why the bad ones don't get fired.

1. A "public" education implies, to me at least, that members of the public have a right to receive it.

2. The school should have just secretly sprayed the kids with SmartWater.

Skasteve:
I guess they are worried about kids from other districts getting in and learning?

No, it's usually to keep out drug dealers, gang members, or anyone who constitutes a threat to the student body.

Also, a school's funding is based on attendance -- so those RFIDs really ARE inventory control.

slightly off topic, but still related...



Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut. May I have your national
ID number?

Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order.

Operator: I must have your NIDN first, sir.

Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's
6102049998-45-54610.

Operator: Thank you Mr. Sheehan. I see you live at 1742 Meadowland
Drive, and the phone number is 494-2366. Your office number over at
Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number is 266-2566. Email
address is [ mailto:sheehan@h... ]sheehan@h... . Which number
are you calling from sir?

Customer: Huh? I'm at home. Where'd you get all this information?

Operator: We're wired into the HSS, sir.

Customer: The HSS, what is that?

Operator: We're wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. This
will add only 15 seconds to your ordering time.

Customer: (sighs) Oh well, I'd like to order a couple of your All
Meat Special pizzas.

Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir.

Customer: Whaddya mean?

Operator: Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that
you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol.
Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy
choice .

Customer: What?!?! What do you recommend, then?

Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza.I'm sure you'll
like it.

Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that?

Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your
local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion.

Customer: All right, all right. Give me two family-sized ones, then

Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids.
Your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99.

Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number.

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash.
Your credit card balance is over its limit.

Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your
driver gets here.

Operator: That won't work either, sir. Your checking account is
overdrawn also.

Customer: Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready.
How long will it take?

Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45
minutes, sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick'em while
you're out getting the cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a motorcycle
can be a little awkward.

Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a scooter?

Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your
car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid for and you just filled the
tank yesterday.

Customer: Well, I'll be a #%#^^&$%^$@#

Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a
July 4, 2003, conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see
here in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge
Oh yes, I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the
State Correctional Facility. Is this your first pizza since your
return to society?

Customer: (speechless)

Operator: Will there be anything else, sir?

Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 liter of Coke.

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us
from offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits
this. Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.

busy chillin':
Operator: I must have your NIDN first, sir.

Wasn't that part of that ACLU flash ani they had on their site to try and scare folks who are too lazy to cook for themselves?

/can't trust an organization that defends NAMBLA

Have everyone give their card to the dorky kid who won't cut class no matter what. He goes to class, everyone gets recorded as present while in fact they are out getting drunk in the parking lot. If the teacher (hopefully) complains/cares point out that computers are never wrong therefore all the kids were in class.

Er... at least in high school. I would hope that 7th graders aren't out getting drunk in the parking lot. A few swipes with a heavy magnet would probably do wonders as well.

I'm glad that we homeschool our kids.

If government schooling is a right, then why were there no government schools in this country for almost 100 years? Show me in the Constitution where the right to an education is?

Bottom line is, the schools are not there to baby sit or indoctrinate, they are there to educate. If people are going to have children, they need to plan for their education from the beginning, and be a part of it to the end. Dropping the little darlings off in the morning and expecting some underpaid government employee to do their job is not the way it is supposed to be.

BTW, I have no children and pay for the school taxes, too.

RFID tags are basically passive. They need to be activated receiving RF energy, which they then re-radiate. The readers themselves are short range. A school-wide system to track every students current location would be too expensive to implement. It could be used for access control, and to tell if a student has entered/left the building. They would be useless for tracking a student who walked off campus (other than, of course, letting you know it happened).

It won't take long until a genius student figures out that wrapping the thing in tinfoil will completely negate any tracking ability, and then tell their friends about it. That, or keeping it in an Altoids tin.

The more technology you try to use, the more crippled you are when someone with a little knowledge puts it to use.

/Had a set of keys for the school
//Surreptiously, of course.
///Amazing what you can do with a key blank, a file, and a tracing of the master keys.

ctenidae:

If the kids become accustomed to wearing what amounts to tracking devices while they're at school, they won't think twice about having them in college, or in their passports, or driver's licenses, or implanted in their shoulders.

Well, they already carry cell phones, PDAs, handheld game systems, MP3/iPod players... they think that all cars are supposed to have GPS nav systems and DVD players... and that cable TV is a "right".

We lost the kids all a long time ago.