As if education dollars weren’t stretched thin enough already with top-heavy bureaucracies and in-school daycares for kids’ kids, the Office of the Texas Attorney General has now prepared a mandatory high school curriculum that will delve into such questions as the difference between “alleged father” and “presumed father.” So while 50 percent of Texas kids entering college need remediation in the core studies, they will at least know how to “secure child support.” The school course is called “PAPA” — Parenting and Paternity Awareness curriculum. Oh, please…
According to the Dallas Morning News, there are 55,000 births to “teenage mothers” in Texas each year. That’s a real travesty and a problem. But we really think that a mandatory class on “paternity awareness” is going to solve it? Maybe a little extra emphasis is needed on “paternity avoidance” or “delaying maternity” would be in order.
The AG’s office has a rather large section devoted to collecting child support. It was this division that created the now mandatory “PAPA” curriculum back in 1995. The Legislature, in its omniscient wisdom, made it mandatory last year.
With the drop-out rate in some schools ranging from 30 to 50 or more percent, and with our “top 10 percent” of kids unprepared for college curriculum, maybe — just maybe — public officials should focus more on the core curriculum than on lifestyle training classes.
It is programs like the AG’s “PAPA” that has taxpayers crying for mama.
