Education panel votes to keep dropout age at 16

Montana’s minimum drop-out age for public-school students will likely remain at 16 for the time being, after a state education panel tabled a bill seeking to raise the age to 18.

During a discussion on the bill earlier this week, members of the House Education Committee weighed whether to recommend House Bill 192, which both proponents and opponents agreed was unlikely to be enforced.

“I can attest to the fact that we have 15-year-olds that are dropping out, and only in very rare cases are they actually brought to school every day by a police officer” under truancy laws, said Rep. Amanda Curtis, a Democrat who also works as a public school teacher in Butte. But in explaining her “yes” vote on the bill, she added, “I know for a fact that this bill will have an impact on a small handful of students, because I will be able to say, ‘Well, the legal dropout age is 18,’ and that will be enough, honest to God, for a couple of kids who are just having a hard time that day or that week.”

Other legislators opposed the bill on the grounds that it would make it more difficult for students to achieve a high school equivalency degree if their school system requires them to drop out first. Committee chair Rep. Seth Berglee, R-Joliet, argued that requiring teenagers to remain in school if they don’t want to be there could have a negative impact on other students trying to learn.

The bill failed to advance by a 11-6 vote.

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.