If you want to see an example of a state government proposing to interfere unjustly (something of an understatement, in fact) with the lives of young people, have a read of New Mexico’s HB0023. Here’s a relevant excerpt:
B. Each student must complete a final next-step plan during the senior year and prior to graduation. The plan shall be filed with the principal of the student’s high school and shall be signed by the student, the student’s parent and the student’s guidance counselor or other school official charged with coursework planning for the student. For students entering the eleventh grade beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, the secretary shall promulgate rules to provide that the plan shall require a student to file an application with a college or show that the student has committed to an internship or apprenticeship or military service.
Did you get the gist of that? New Mexico is proposing to not allow high school students to graduate until the state and its Top Men, in their infinite wisdom, have reviewed and approved their post-graduation plans.
The state of New Mexico is dropping even the pretense that they don’t own its residents any more. This is the first major decision young people have to make in their lives, the first major step into the greater world, and obviously elements in the state of New Mexico aren’t willing to leave that decision to them. No, they want to approve those plans, or else, no diploma for you!
What’s more – this isn’t California or Massachusetts, both notorious nanny states. This is New Mexico – a squishy blue state with a significant, notoriously independent rural population. If New Mexico is considering this, who else will catch wind and think it’s a good idea?
People – including young people – have the right to screw up, and I’m fine with that, as long as they don’t come to me with hand outstretched looking for me to bail them out of the consequences of their bad decisions. But New Mexico proposes to remove that option by force of law.
In what alternative universe is this a good thing?
