Gov. Gavin Newsom and I don’t have much in common politically. He’s the Democratic governor of California; I work for a think tank in Utah that supports limited government. Newsom opposes school choice and issued a moratorium on some new charter schools in California. I’m a former public school principal who has become a school choice advocate, and I support alternatives like charter schools.

On one thing, Newsom and I agree — criminalizing chronically absent students and their families is a bad idea.

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The attendance crisis in schools is real. Nearly one in four students nationwide is chronically absent. Absences put pressure on students, who fall behind, and on teachers, who are left to fill the gaps.

Some lawmakers believe that solving chronic absenteeism, also known

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