Schools across the country are struggling to get students to show up reliably.
The best estimates suggest more than 1 in 4 American students are chronically absent. That’s double the rate in 2019, when absenteeism was already a serious problem.
School superintendents have resorted to pleading with families on Facebook Live, bribing students with field trips, and even knocking on doors to urge parents to ensure their children arrive each day.
The futility of these efforts would be comical if there weren’t so much at stake. School closings due to COVID-19 wiped out more than two decades of educational progress.
But the situation isn’t hopeless. Most education pundits and school administrators wringing their hands about the chronic absenteeism crisis are missing an essential remedy: educational freedom.
Students won’t consistently show up for school until we…
