Schools Going to a Four Day School Week?
With school budgets going further and further into the red, many schools are taking drastic measures to help cut costs. One way some districts are cutting back is by going to a four day school week. Some districts are off Monday’s while others take Friday’s off. By cutting a day out of the week they save on energy, transportation and overhead costs. Schools that do this would have to extend the school day to ensure the children are receiving their proper education.
Ask my kids and they will say this is a great idea. They would love to have a three-day weekend every single week, but is it really a good idea? I’m not sold. I understand the kids would still have the same amount of school time, but what about the parents? What would all these working parents do with an extra day to try to find childcare? I’m lucky that I stay home but I’m the minority. Most families have two parents working outside the home.
Taking the parent-perspective out, it is a great way to save money, and if it would help to be able to have all the teachers we needed and supplies our children need, then I say go for it. My daughter is in the first grade and has 26 students in her class. This is way over the standard, but the school district is out of money and could not hire a teacher for one that left. Being a teacher down, the remaining teachers have to pick up the slack and are overwhelmed with too many students and not enough time to spend individually with each student. If cutting out their half-day Wednesday and adding an hour to each other day of the week would solve this problem, I say go for it. I hate half day Wednesday’s anyway and don’t understand why they do it.
This has already been implemented in some states, including Hawaii. Parents in Hawaii are upset that their schools already are ranked some of the lowest in the country and now their school days are cut more, leaving the extra burden on parents. With President Obama discussing the idea of lengthening the school year, how will four day school weeks come into play? He is already calling to shorten the summer break and lengthen the school day, but how would this be possible with four day school weeks? I agree that summer break is entirely too long and my kids can’t go two weeks without having a day off for this or that. It is ridiculous. They just had “fall break” two weeks ago and are now off for two days at the end of this week for conferences. Couldn’t these be combined? Why do they need a “fall break” anyway, they just went back to school?
This four day school week is being picked up by more and more districts nationwide. Keep a close eye on local news to see if it is something being looked at in your area, I know it is for me. With the budget-crisis we are in though, I welcome any idea to get us out of the mess we are in.
Thank you for writing about this. I hope more people read it and become aware just how truly desperate our schools systems are. My husband is a teacher and he’s been dealing with this issue all year. Budget cuts at the end of last year cut teachers who had only been working there a year. More budget cuts are proposed including a 4 day work week. Also proposed are cutting some extracurriculars (sports and after school programs), as well as cutting some teachers (Fine Arts and Coaches). Next year they are talking about a decrease in salary for all the teachers. To all of the people who claim: “Teachers get paid enough and they have summers off.” Let me just say this, we can’t barely live off of my husband’s salary, and those summers are generally used up in trying to get the classes necessary so that they can keep or renew their teaching licenses. Those classes are not paid for by the district or school, they are paid out of pocket. So, really? Do teachers get paid enough for teaching our children and helping them to achieve their full potential? Budget cuts are only going to make this worse as good teachers lose their jobs or are forced to find alternate employment because they can’t afford to feed their families; when they can no longer afford to be a teacher. A way to fix this: tell law makers to stop cutting education and be prepared for a tax increase to help pay for it. It’s the only way.