Complaining About Educating Students Until 18?

The Hartland Consolidated Schools official couldn't possibly have said what the local paper says she said. Or if she did, surely it was taken out of context.

I mean, a school official complaining about having to educate children until they are age 18 -- what is up with that? Isn't that what schools are for?

Janet Sifferman, superintendent of Hartland Consolidated Schools, is quoted by the Livingston Press and Argus complaining that Michigan legislation designed to help the state compete for $400 million in federal funds would raise the legal drop-out age from 16 to 18.

Sifferman complained that requiring students to stay in school until age 18 would cost too much money because, the newspaper said, "the state would have to fund schooling for would-be dropouts for another two years."

Using that logic, let's lower the legal drop-out age to 12 and save lots of money.

I've heard complaints before that schools sometimes push out students they don't like, intentionally creating drop-outs rather than trying to prevent them. But I've never heard that lowering your per pupil count, on which state-funding is based, was a way to balance your budget.