YOUR SPACE:
Ontario to delay driver's licences to dropouts
CBC News Viewpoint | December 2005
 (courtesy Ontario Ministry of Transportation)
The aim is to encourage students to stay in school until they're 18, so they can graduate. Roughly 45,000 Ontario high school students, or 30 per cent, leave each year before graduating.
The province hopes to cut that number in half by 2010.
Education Minister Gerard Kennedy said students applying for their licences would have to show a document to the Ministry of Transportation that proves they're an active student.
Kennedy says the penalty will come into effect once schools establish a wider choice of courses and add more co-op and apprenticeship programs to keep at-risk students in school.
Your letters:
Having read about the new law regarding students who drop out of high school, thus being denied the right to obtain their driver's licence, is just as draconian as it gets.
Whatever happened to our Charter of Rights? Have the politicians forgotten that we have a Charter guaranteeing basic rights?
Under the Charter we are all regarded as being equal under the law, I see no equality in this ill-thought and asinine piece of legislation.
The politicians who thought this one up need to visit the schools and find out why our students are dropping out. How they can better the environment for learning, how they can enrich the curriculum instead of punishing students who are perhaps more intelligent than the stupid politicians who dreamed up this stunning idiocy.
—Kenneth Dobbie | Kingston, Ontario
The Ontario government's proposal to deny driver's licenses to high school dropouts defies common sense, and borders on violating basic human rights.
If the intention is to discourage people from dropping out of school, why wouldn't the government simply make a law against THAT? Why? Because such a law would itself be illegal.
It is wrong for a government to coerce its citizens to attend school--regardless of whether or not it's good for them. Is it any more just to deny dropouts a completely unrelated privilege, simply because they choose not to attend school? This seems like an intolerable violation both of privacy and freedom of choice. Simply because the issue affects minors does not mean that violation of those rights should be acceptable.
In most cases where kids drop out of school, the system fails the student, not the other way around. People drop out of high school for many economic and personal reasons, and to deny or revoke licenses would only handicap them further and create an even greater burden on the state.
Without the ability to drive, dropouts would have even fewer employment opportunities. Young mothers would be forced to become even more dependent on government and community support. Revoking a troubled young person's driver's license would not do anything to help them deal with the personal difficulties which force many to leave school in the first place--and it runs the danger of limiting their access to any counseling or support resources that they might need to enable them to function in school.
At best, not allowing dropouts to drive will do nothing to solve the problem. At worst, it will constitute a human rights injustice and make the very real problem of high-school dropouts even worse.
Matthew Blimke | Edmonton
A licence to drive is a privilege, not a right. There are many prerequisites that one must attain prior to obtaining a driver's licence; such as comprehending road signage for example. Adding one more condition to obtaining a licence for a potentially vulnerable and possibly ill advised age group is an excellent form of linkage. It is a step in curbing the culture of entitlement.
—Dan McPhee | Toronto
First, I don't have any citations in front of me, but I have read numerous times over the years that while a large number of teenagers fail to complete high school within the time frame appropriate for their age, over time the vast majority of dropouts eventually earn their graduation requirements.
While to some people this may seem like the tough road, with unnecessary challenge and toil, it is not for us to judge how other adults (and yes, a 18-year-old is an adult) go about managing their education.
While completing high school in the customary manner may be ideal, it is not the only way to go about living one's life, and while going without a high school diploma may be challenging, it is not a guarantor of failure in life; in fact, I believe that - in our car culture, unfortunate though it may be - being unable to get around in one's own vehicle may be a greater hindrance to success.
Second, I am curious to know how this law will affect adults without their diplomas: to echo another writer, how long will this prohibition last? Will a 27-year-old mother trying to get a driver's license be denied because she lacks a diploma?
Will drop-outs be able to get their licenses when they turn 21? It seems like a ridiculous and unworkable system, notwithstanding the punitive nature of the law. I sincerely hope it is brought under the scrutiny of a human-rights challenge as soon as possible.
—Natalie Anne Lanoville | Vancouver
Personally I don't see anything wrong with this perspective. As a Canadian living in the States, I am disgusted that the driving issue is becoming thought of as a right, and not a privilege. I am worried by the sentiment of some of the people who posted here, who have the same thought process.
The last time I heard this rhetoric from the bleeding heart Liberals was roughly 10 years ago when Dropouts under the age of 18 could only be eligible for Social Assistance if they attended classes to get their GED in the mornings, and did work placement in the afternoons to learn a skill.
I worked at the time for a group that administered these programs, and although many folks likened it to "forced labour" or "slavery", at the end of their terms with these companies, many of them were offered full time work BY the employer.
—Greg Goodall | Mission Viejo, CA, USA
This is not the way to keep kids in school to graduation. Taking away the privilege to drive for leaving school just adds to the frustration some kids already have with our high and mighty know it all lobbyist, parental, community and governmental attitude.
If we want to keep the students in school we need to ASK THEM WHY THEY ARE LEAVING SCHOOL and what we could do better to retain their interest in furthering their education. Stop treating them like babies and see them as the young adults they are with ideas, dreams, aspirations, ambitions, questions, concerns, fears, pressures and stresses of their own.
Let's start helping them and quit dictating to them, some of our best brains are leaving school not just kid's with problems.
—H. Wills | Uxbridge, Ontario
We often think of Canada as a country that upholds such strong human rights. I see this decision as a violation of rights towards young adults. It is repulsive that the government believes that reprimanding youth will empower them to continue on their educational path.
This is a very dictorial perspective.
Youth need to be inspired. The highschool dropout rate reflects the lack of inspiration that occurs in our school system. The education curriculum continues to use eurocentric material, outdated texts that don't reflect the lives of youth today.
GET real Canadian government. It's time to ask the youth what it is they need, or require to succeed in the education system. It's time to offer creative, contemporary, alternative choices for youth. Why are we stuck in the bloody dark ages!
I dropped out of school 3 times in the early 90's because the curriculum sucked. I was bored, not learning anything interesting. I come from a latin america background and was repulsed by the lack of cultural diversity in the curriculum.
If I was being threatened to have a driver's license revoked, you bet I would have been throwing eggs at the parliament building.
—Carolina Gana | Toronto
I question whether this idea will have any significant impact on what percentage of our kids graduate high school. There will be kids who will drop out regardless and who need to be able to drive.
It will mean that those who drop out won't be able to get around very conveniently and will likely need to hound their parents to drive them to and from their likely-low-paying jobs.
—Larry Yates | Belleville, Ontario
There is no such thing as a "drop-out"in the public education system
there are only those that are 'forced-out' because the education system cannot or will not address their needs.
Now Ontario (in its singular infinite wisdom) chooses to place a further indignity and stigma on these people rather than address its own shortcomings.
—Joseph Bain | Montreal
What is this, for how long would a student not be allowed to get their drivers licence? It makes me wonder what country I live in. We as Canadians have to stand up to the Government and tell them to quit controlling our lives like this was a communist country.
—Richard Lemaire | Kapuskasing, Ontario
As a teacher and as a Canadian, I see two issues here. One as the NDP critic already raised, is that it is punitive way to keep students in school. Sometimes students are just not cut out for school life or they need jobs to support their family.
The second issue is one of mobility. Was that not guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? If you want to raise the driving age, that's one thing, but using it to keep your thumb on students, there has to be better ways.
What about increasing scholarships or creating more student internships?
—John T | Winnipeg
Were getting to be more of a police state everyday. Whats next? A university degree before you can get married! A high school diploma before you can legally have sex! Or maybe just a diploma in marriage psychology before you can get married?
Government in peoples lives is making living in this province just too much to accept anymore.
—Dennis McLeod | Val Therese, Ontario
The article mentions that several American states have enacted similar laws, tying driving licences to high school attendance. But the obvious question is, does it work? Is there a measurable effect on drop-out rates?
—att Innes | Glen Nevis, Ontario
Are we now in a Communist state? How the hell are people who leave school going to find work as truck drivers, couriers, etc, etc?
The Liberals whether provincial or federal have lost it completely. Another bad idea that does not address the route of the problem.
—Ron Carson | Ottawa
This is a ridiculous ploy, all the more transparent because it targets those who have no recourse to vote in the upcoming election against it!
An example of how poorly thought out this is:
I was a high school student up until the September of what would have been my grade 11 year. At that point, I was forced to drop out of high school- to attend a university, instead. I'm now 17, and should have been half-way through grade 12. Does this mean that the province will deny me my license simply because I no longer attend a high school?
Similarly, what about those who home school? Are they denied their licenses simply because they took an alternate path? (Which, I must mention, is perfectly allowed under Ontario law!)
—Alexander Burton-Vulovic | Toronto
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