NE1: Fixed School Leaving Age Act

[DKrol]

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Debate will last for 72 hours.

Rep. Clyde1998, you have 36 hours to advocate for your bill.

[Clyde1998]

This bill sets out the guidelines for who should be in full time education - allowing people at the age of sixteen to leave school in order to go into full time work (around 30 hours per week). [I should probably add that to the final bill]

If someone between the ages of seventeen and eighteen is unemployed then this bill would require them to be in full time education (school, college, apprenticeship, etc.) until the end of the school year that contains their eighteenth birthday.

I've allowed a two week period for those who are new to the region to comply with the bill - so they can find a new place of education.

The bill will ensure that all states have the same school leaving age across the region.

[free my dawg]

Good bill, and I support it in principle, but I have trouble seeing how this doesn't violate the Federal Supremacy Clause (which sets the age of majority at 16).

My primary concern is the legalese, though - say, if a seventeen-year-old is fired, then under this law, they technically aren't complying and their parents are fined $200. Could we include a procedure about people who are looking for a job or have just been fired?

[Clyde1998]

Good bill, and I support it in principle, but I have trouble seeing how this doesn't violate the Federal Supremacy Clause (which sets the age of majority at 16).

My primary concern is the legalese, though - say, if a seventeen-year-old is fired, then under this law, they technically aren't complying and their parents are fined $200. Could we include a procedure about people who are looking for a job or have just been fired?

Maybe we should ask the Federal Government to check whether we are allowed to pass something like this. This could get through - in the same way that in the US, the age of majority is 18, but the legal drinking age is 21.

If we are allowed to pass this, I'm very happy to add a section about being fired. Should we allow two weeks for them for find a new job or re-enter education (which would match new residents in the initial proposal)?

[DKrol]

At this moment, I am not in favor of this bill.

I hold reservations over, as expressed by Governor Sawx, the possibility of someone being fired. It is generally rather difficult to re-enter a school system halfway through a term - especially if one has been out of the education system for a year or two.

[free my dawg]

At this moment, I am not in favor of this bill.

I hold reservations over, as expressed by Governor Sawx, the possibility of someone being fired. It is generally rather difficult to re-enter a school system halfway through a term - especially if one has been out of the education system for a year or two.

Yes, it's much different than, say, taking a year off between high school and college like I did.

Maybe we should ask the Federal Government to check whether we are allowed to pass something like this. This could get through - in the same way that in the US, the age of majority is 18, but the legal drinking age is 21.

The language specifically says that "All applicable legal rights and privileges that come with reaching the age of majority are likewise to be applied to persons aged 16 and older effective 30 days upon the passage of this legislation." Doesn't even look like it can hold up in a court of law, to be honest.

[Lincoln Republican]

Circumstances such as this proposed bill show the absolute folly of having the legal age of majority set at 16 years instead of 18 years.

16 year olds are generally only in grade 10.  It is the height of ridiculousness to give 16 year olds the legal right to drop out of school if they wish.  16 year olds, grade 10, who choose to drop out of school face a very bleak future.

16 year olds who drop out of school in grade 10 do not even have a high school education.  In this highly competitive and technologically advanced society in which we live, a high school dropout faces a future of minimum wage jobs, will be very limited in the types of jobs open to them, and dim chances of getting ahead.

There are many companies and corporations who have as an absolute minimum requirement of employment with them a high school education.  And I am not talking about technical or management jobs.  I am talking about even manual labor jobs.  Most companies these days have an educational requirement of minimum high school completion even to clean floors, unload trucks, stack pallets with 20 pound bags, etc., etc., etc.

Allowing 16 year olds to legally leave school if they want to is a recipe for disaster, for society, and for the 16 year olds who leave school because it is their right.

There is a glaring contradiction here.  On the one hand, the 16 year old is of legal adult age.  Yet you say they are a child and the parents must be responsible to send them to school or face a 250.00 fine.  If 16 year olds are legally adults, how can someone else be held responsible for their behavior?  An adult is legally obligated to accept responsibility for their own actions.

Why should parents have to pay a fine for an adult?

Again, age of majority set at 16 years is absolute insanity.  It opens up a whole can of worms.

[Clyde1998]

I think the age of majority, maybe, should be 18 - with certain opt outs in certain situations (such a voting, for example).

I guess this bill is dead in the water then, unless we can concise Federal Government to either allow our region a separate age of majority - or to raise the national age of majority to 18.

[DKrol]

Time has elapsed for debate on this bill.

We will now move to a 48 hour vote.

[Clyde1998]

Aye - but I doubt Federal Government will allow us to pass it.

[DKrol]

Nay

[Lincoln Republican]

Nay

[pikachu]

Aye- if this is passed and is legal, I'd like to amend it to add protections for unemployed 16-18 year olds. I'd also like to make the age of majority 18 too, but that seems out of our hands.

[Sopranos Republican]

NAY

[DKrol]

With all members having voted, the time for voting has elapsed.

With 3 Nays and 2 Ayes , this bill has not garnered the support of a majority of the members of the Assembly and fails.