Holidays In Term Time.

Who can blame parents for saving hundreds - if not thousands - of pounds by taking their children out of school for holidays in term time?
Anyone doing this in the final year of a child's run-in to GCSEs should, however, be punished by the courts. In all other cases - why the heavy-handed approach? If the odd week is missed over years - what's the big deal? Fortnights or longer do tend to make me rather less comfortable, though.