When schools become juvenile detention centers, willing and attentive students lose out, says Colorado state Rep. Russell George (R). So three years ago he offered an amendment to repeal the law that mandates school attendance for children between six and 16.

Other critics of the attendance laws say repealing them could lead to the flowering of innovative private schools. Still others point out that the laws impose burdensome regulations on parents who favor home schooling.

• Every state requires children to attend school until they earn a high school diploma or until they reach a certain age -- typically 16 or 18.

• An estimated 1.7 million children are now being schooled at home.

• Richard Seder of the Reason Public Policy Institute points out that compulsory attendance can contribute to violence in the schools, since those who don't want to be there will intimidate other students and teachers.

• Studies of compulsory-attendance laws in Britain reveal that education was widespread before schooling was mandatory and free -- with nearly all children receiving some sort of schooling by 1870 and the country enjoying a literacy rate of more than 90 percent.

Some experts point out that support for mandatory schooling came from labor organizers who thought young workers were taking jobs from adults. But many youths benefited from firms' apprenticeship programs that provided them with education on the job.

Source: Aaron Steelman, "Repeal Compulsory-School Laws?" Investor's Business Daily, December 2, 1998.