Tough Love Isn't Always Easy To Give

Local school boards are supposed to represent the patrons of that independent school district and provide governance, while keeping administrators in check. After sitting through many school board meetings, I truly realize that the trustee position is about the most thankless job in public life.

People are passionate about their children, and parents should be advocates for their students.

But sometimes the board just has to make tough choices, and those decisions are not going to make everyone happy.

The Kaufman ISD board faced such a decision last Tuesday night.

The issue at hand is one that is close to everyone’s heart this time of year: graduation. More specifically, board members last week were confronted with a dilemma that many of their peers also are facing right now. Should the district retreat from its long-standing policy of not allowing students to take part in commencement if they had not passed the statewide tests?

It’s a decision the KISD board’s peers around the state have struggled with as well. Some do allow it; some don’t.

Currently, Kaufman ISD doesn’t, but during last Tuesday’s meeting a student and her mother requested the board change its policy.

For the record, the student has been one of the district’s good ones — both in the classroom and in the athletic arena. She’s what I’d feel safe to call a good kid and a good student.

Unfortunately, she didn’t pass one portion of the exit level TAKS, which meant she couldn’t join her classmates in walking across the stage on Monday.

During the public remarks from visitors portion of last Tuesday’s meeting, this student and her mother pleaded with the board to allow her to walk the stage without receiving a diploma.

The board was faced with a tough, emotional decision.

They chose to do nothing.

And that was the right choice.

Of course, it is a tragedy that some students can’t make the cap-and-gown walk, but the district spends great resources in providing tutorials for students to finally get that needed grade.

As tragic a situation as that may seem, the district’s rule on graduation does serve a purpose. Graduation is a reward for meeting all the requirements. Getting to walk the stage is an incentive for those students to achieve success.

While I would have loved to seen this student walk the stage Monday and I’ve been a vocal critic of the state’s unnecessary reliance on the TAKS, I understand why the board left the rule in place. If they would have changed it, I believe they would have lessened that incentive and, ultimately in years ahead, more students would have failed to graduate.

It’s often said that parents must sometimes practice tough love.

I believe sometimes school boards do, too.