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I can’t find an exact figure but from what I have seen online, I’m pretty confident in saying that there are hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid fines in New Zealand, and that figure is about to rise even further.  

Because the Government is dreaming if it thinks people fined for not sending their kids to school are going to suddenly start sending their kids to school, and that they're even going to bother paying the fines.  

They won’t. They’ll just ignore them. They won’t pay up.  

Because if they don’t feel bad about not sending their kids to school, they won’t feel bad about getting a fine. And they won’t feel bad about not paying it either.  

A fortnight ago, Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced that the Government is going to spend $140 million over the next four years with one aim: getting more kids to turn up at school regularly.  

And I said at the time that we’ll wait and see, but it seemed that he had stopped banging the drum about fining parents whose kids don’t go to school. And I said, we’ll see, because leopard and their spots, and all that.  

And it turns out I was right to be doubtful, because the leopard hasn’t changed its spots and today, he’s telling these parents that the Government is out to get them.  

But it won't make one bit of difference.  

And I've said before that I think starting school later is an idea worth considering because I want us to get creative when it comes to truancy. There’s no evidence to show that fining parents works. In fact, there’s evidence to show that it doesn’t work.  

In the United States, for example, Texas, Pennsylvania, and California went through periods where parents could be heavily fined if their kids were repeatedly absent. 

Parents were fined $500 for every absence. Some states even used ankle bracelets for kids who were repeat truants. It didn't work because it created mistrust in the system and in authorities and the truancy rates got even worse.  

So what might work, if fining parents isn’t going to work?  

Well this is where Sweden comes into the conversation.  

I’m not a fan of any sort of financial penalty because, as far as I’m concerned, anything that takes money away from families isn’t good because that affects the kids themselves. 

But if you want a financial penalty approach, in Sweden if a parent is on a benefit of any sort, their payments get cut if they don’t send their kids to school.  

Apparently it’s had a positive impact. And I think the reason it works way better than fining parents is that it takes money away without these parents having any choice.  

Whereas if they get a fine, it’s still their choice whether they pay it or not.  

Plus, here in New Zealand, I think there’s a culture where some people just don’t give a damn about fines – that’s why so many just don't get paid.  

Which is why I think that the Government’s plan to fine parents who don’t send their kids to school won't make one bit of difference.