Who's to blame foe students doing poorly in school -- the teachers, or their parents?  While it seldom boils down to just one or the other, a new state law in Louisiana aims to get the two parties to partner more often in a child's education.

These people told WWL First News Thursday morning that they agree: parents have to be a part of their kids' education.

"Involvement in the school and involvement with their lives," said one.  "Get involved with the kid."

"I think the parents are responsible," another.  "I know in Japan, if you do something wrong, they punish the parents and the kids."

Louisiana state senator Gerald Long helped pass a new law that tries to do something about it.

"It's time we began to ask parents, ' step up, assume your role, your responsibility,'" Long said.

The new law gives local school district the power to enforce parent participation in scheduled parent-teacher conferences.  Unlike what we were told happens in Japan, this law expressly forbids that punishment from coming down on the student.

The law leaves it up to each school district to determine an appropriate response to nonparticipation.  Long says officials at one district tell him they're considering publicly calling out the no-show parents.

"Twice a year, they're going to publish in the local newspaper the list of parents or guardian who for whatever reason did not participate in the parent conference," said Long.