
Schools Considering Four-Day Weeks - bcathome
http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/schools-considering-four-day-weeks-10030801
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johnohara
_"We're all trying different things now to see what will help us save a little
money," she explained._

Lazy thinking masquerading as innovation.

A four day school week (160 vs. 180) affecting all faculty and students to
save $200K? Let me give you a better idea: fire three overpriced
administrators who agree to this s##t for brains idea and save $75K each.

~~~
roboneal
You should probably bump that 75K to 100K and throw in s $30K side order of
benefits and about a $1-$1.5M defined-benefit pension .

At least that's the going rate for most "administrators" in my neck of the
woods (Milwaukee).

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madair
If society centers on a typical 5-day work week and then centers on a typical
4-day school week, then society is very very stupid.

But don't worry, all those young tween and teen boys who are out of school and
unsupervised will be sure to let society know just how stupid.

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thinkbohemian
You know the other day, i was remembering my time in Atlanta and all of the
bright shining stars they're cranking out, and i was thinking to myself...what
could we really do to drive a nail into the coffin of our youths futures'? And
then suddenly this article shows up, must be fate!

On a serious note, this is symptomatic of a larger national trend, we're
paying more attention to everything OTHER than our children, and we wonder why
we don't dominate markets that we did 20 years ago. Something drastic needs to
be done, but less time with teachers, and more time un-supervised is probably
not the extra "edge" our students need right now.

~~~
tokenadult
_we're paying more attention to everything OTHER than our children_

Not so here. I'm taking special care to make sure that all my four children
are well educated. I do that in two ways:

1) I homeschool them, so that they have flexible curricula well matched to
their needs with the highest quality available materials,

and

2) I actively participate in two nonprofit organizations dedicated to
improvement of education in my state. In one, I coordinate with other parents
to promote better education for gifted learners inside or outside classroom
schools, and in the other I coordinate a math education program helping young
people advance in their math understanding at elementary age

<http://www.ams.org/notices/200502/fea-kenschaft.pdf>

[http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/fall99...](http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/fall99/amed1.pdf)

[http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/fall99...](http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/fall99/wu.pdf)

[http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/issues...](http://archive.aft.org/pubs-
reports/american_educator/issues/fall2009/wu.pdf)

Note the articles I have just linked to. You can't be sure that if most
American children spent more time in elementary school classrooms that they
would grow up with more knowledge of mathematics. The same is true of reading,
but that's another set of links.

~~~
thinkbohemian
你好, Having gone to public and private school, i can give a fair recommendation
that while I learned more academically in private school, I learned more about
dealing with difficult people and real world situations (accidentally) in
public school. Home schooling can be part of the answer I just hope you are
allowing your children to grow. More schooling isn't an absolute, just look at
japan and ask why they don't produce (as many) innovators.

I very much applaud your efforts to improve education of your state, i hope
you keep up the good work. After looking at your bio, i see that you're very
involved in the education system. I'm curious what brings you to HN other than
good news and good commentators ^_^ . Do you also have plans to take over the
world with a start-up like the rest of us?

~~~
roboneal
"Home schooling can be part of the answer I just hope you are allowing your
children to grow."

Do you honestly worry that he isn't allowing his child to "grow" by
homeschooling?

Public school is hardly the sole source for the teaching of "socialization"
skills for children.

Exchanging 50% graduation rates for lessons on "dealing with difficult people"
is hardly a bargain.

~~~
thinkbohemian
If you're the type of person to home school, then your children aren't the
demographic that doesn't graduate. On the other hand i've seen divisions in a
YMCA league between the students who go to school together and the students
who don't. Home schooling is very empowering, and beneficial. I support it and
you.

Not all parents consider "socialization" necessary, but you are obviously not
all parents. Kudos.

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j_b_f
Hawaii is already doing this:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/21/hawaii-
schools-f...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/21/hawaii-schools-
fridays-furlough)

It's been very problematic for parents who have to find childcare on Fridays
-- it basically just shifts that cost back on to the taxpayer.

~~~
justindz
That's how I was thinking as well.

So, would it make more sense (fiscally, not politically) to just impose or
increase a tax to fund the 5th day--worked out to pretty much the same cost as
people would have to pay for local childcare? Same fiscal burden, but much
less social disruption.

~~~
thinkbohemian
The article sounds like the officials already realize that this is a horrible
idea, though the tax payers won't do anything to prevent it. Even if it is the
same overall price, its hidden in the fine print, and most people won't dig
deep enough to find it.

Now if only the general masses were smarter they could figure this out for
themselves. But how will we make the masses smarter if we are taking cuts to
our education system...

~~~
roboneal
"the tax payers won't do anything to prevent it"

So to you, that's the problem?

A math example:

Milwaukee Area school budget (2008) - $1.2B Total Enrolled Students: 82,739
Cost per student: $14,503

I can purchase on the open market private schooling in the Milwaukee area for
around $6K for K-8 and $9K for high school.

For the record, my wife homeschools for no cost to the taxpayers but we still
pay the taxes.

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weichi
On the high school level, perhaps jr high as well, if you could replace the
5th day at school with a day in a workplace - some kind of internship - then I
think you would end up with a better system. Perhaps vastly better.

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dpatru
A large part of the value that first and secondary schools provide is
supervision. Academic subjects can be learned by self-study with the aid of
learning materials and the occasional tutor. But supervision still requires a
real person and physical building. As surveillance technology matures, even
supervision will be doable without these. At this point, it will be much
harder to justify traditional schools.

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bravura
_While education experts have expressed concern about the long-term effects of
reduced learning hours, schools are saying that the step is necessary to avoid
further teacher layoffs._

Wait, you're telling me that if you have a four-day school week, it's so that
we can keep _more_ teachers on board?

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teach
My school district switches to 4 ten-hour days over the summers; we save a ton
of money on utilities just letting the buildings stay uncooled for three days
instead of two.

Nobody has suggested doing that when classes are in session, though. Probably
because most of my administration is relatively sane.

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robotron
If the hours are made up in the other four days, it makes sense to me.

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hockeybias
Great, just great. ...I'll make sure my kids are at 5-day week school to give
them an advantage over the poor kids harmed by this idiocy.

