At least three legislative attempts to link Minnesota school attendance or performance to teen driving privileges have failed over the past 15 years.

On the strength of greater bipartisan support, this year could be different.

It's time for Minnesota to join the 27 other states that require students to pass tests or stay in school to legally get behind the wheel. Tying driving to school attendance can be a powerful incentive to keep students engaged in education.

Under the measure championed by Sen. Chuck Wiger, DFL-Maplewood, and education chair Sen. Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, high school dropouts would either be ineligible to get a driver's license or would have their licenses revoked.

The law would reinforce the importance of learning and serve as a dramatic reminder that finishing high school is a teen's primary job.

About 73,000 driver's licenses were issued to 16- and 17-year-olds in 2010, according to the Minnesota Department of Safety.

The state Education Department reports that in 2009, a staggering 4,300, or 5.6 percent, of students officially dropped out of Minnesota high schools. Another 4,300 students are unaccounted for -- they are not official dropouts but are nevertheless not in school.

Those figures are conservative when compared with dropout rates reported by national groups like the Alliance for School Excellence, an organization that tracks the graduation rates in each state and promotes the economic benefits of keeping kids in school.

Alliance reports that slightly more than 15,000 Minnesota kids left high school last year. Those differences are due to the variety of ways that graduation and dropout rates are calculated.

But whether this state has 9,000 or 15,000 teens out of school, too many students are losing the opportunity to become productive members of society through education.

Alliance projects that Minnesota could increase tax revenues by up to $11 million if even half of the state's 2010 dropouts had stayed in school.

Spending by those additional graduates could support as many as 700 new jobs, and their combined incomes would pump an additional $67 million a year into Minnesota's economy halfway through their adult working lives.

Clearly the state has a compelling economic and societal interest in keeping students in school.

As Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul and author of the companion House bill, notes: "We all bear the expensive cost of young people dropping out in increased social supports and corrections costs. We simply can't afford to have this many dropouts every year. This [bill] is not 'the fix'; rather, it is a small, principled step toward being consistent and clear on the importance of a full education."

Still, the measure is not overly punitive. Dropouts would only have to wait until age 18 to renew their driving privileges.

The legislation should better reflect that there are possible unintended consequences, special circumstances or hardships for some teens.

Some 16- and 17-year-olds, for example, either help or are the sole financial support for their families. Some teens are supporting their own children. For them, driving can be necessary for survival.

Authors of the bill recognize that there are many reasons that students leave school; withholding licenses is just one of a several things that can help keep kids on track toward earning diplomas.

In fact, a more comprehensive way of addressing the dropout problem would be to require Minnesotans to stay in school until age 18.

In the meantime, according to mostly anecdotal evidence from other states, getting and keeping a driver's license causes some students to think twice about giving up on education.

If even 10 percent of current dropouts are motivated to stay or return to school to stay on the road, the legislative effort will be worth it.

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