I might buy that assertion if these children and their parents were completely blindsided. In other words, did the school district wait until the final day of the 9th grade year and suddenly, without any advance notice of failure, tell students (and parents) that they would be held back? Hardly. This kind of blind analysis is valid only if we believe that schools are solely responsible for the performance of students and that students and their parents bear no role whatsoever in the educational process other than ensuring that student sit in classrooms where education is somehow magically implanted in each hapless student.

In the real world, it is not uncommon for kids to fail to advance to 10th grade, and the primary reason, outstripping all others, is that the kids simply refuse to do their work. No work, no grades, no credit, no pass. It’s just that simple. Are there instances of special needs kids not getting all the support they need? Of schools not providing the best possible educational opportunity for “normal” kids? Of course, but such examples are certainly the exception, not the rule.

What is really important here is personal responsibility. Responsibility on the part of the student to realize that they are solely liable to take advantage of their educational opportunities and of parents to actually be parents. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve talked with parents who ask me “what should I do?” to deal with a child who will do nothing. I’ve discovered that the mere fact that they’re asking that question means that nothing I can say to them will be of any help. One doesn’t inculcate personal responsibility by taking money from the public schools and giving it to private schools through whatever scheme is in current use these days (are they still vouchers, or are they no opportunity scholarships?).