Your argument is basically "the poor should stay poor and uneducated," which I reject, and society should reject. Kids that are truant are more likely to become

Your argument is basically "the poor should stay poor and uneducated," which I reject, and society should reject. Kids that are truant are more likely to become criminals (idle hands and idle minds do bad things a lot of the time,) be homeless, draw welfare, require public support, etc. That's not ideal. We can easily stop that from happening, we should not encourage it. You say they'll work at Starbucks, it's just as likely they will just not have a job at all. Some truancy is because their parents can't enforce what their kids are doing (though some are just really bad parenting), or are too poor too (work double shifts, etc.) We can support those people with social programs, while also making sure their kids go to school and making sure the schools are funded, even hinging the programs on truancy. Incentives work.