Money woes... Thanks to Flickr user Osvaldo_Zoom
We at USDemocrazy are pretty fond of our weekends.We particularly enjoy the occasional three day weekend.
And apparently so do poor school districts!
To save money, some schools are considering moving to a four-day school week. With one less day, schools could cut some serious dough from their budget. Hawaii has already done this to save money, and other districts may follow suit.
There is a certain logic to this. In this time of economic hardship, State budgets have been suffering. One way to balance their education budgets is to cut costs… and cut teachers. In the case of Hawaii, instead of laying teachers off, the state decided to give them some Super-Fun Furlough Fridays!
To make up lost class time, other school days have to be extended. In an interview with NPR, Mike Griffith, Senior School Finance Analyst, Education Commission of the States (what a title!), said the following about the length of school days:
They are longer, but I wouldn’t say much longer. They’re about an hour more a day, about an hour and ten minutes in most cases, over the tradition school day.
So, one less day a week, but not much more instruction time for the other days? How’s that working out, Mr. Griffith?
But the jury is still out if there is a great impact on student learning one way or the other. There is an awful lot of feeling out there, although not a lot of statistics right now, that moving to this could actually hurt student learning.
What’s a state to do? Fire teachers, up class sizes, cut “non-essential” programs (like PE, music, and art)? California is one of the most extreme examples of states that can’t afford their school systems. This article in the Guardian goes to show that in the past few budgeting cycles, the great state had to snip $18 billion from its schools and universities.
That makes us wonder… How would we really have liked a four-day school week? Kids might like it, but it does prove to be a problem for working parents who have to find somewhere for the kids to be supervised on that extra weekend day, likely being an extra cost.
So… Is a four-day school week an effective money-saving tool? Let us know what you think by clicking that little comment button!
I think this is the perfect way to deal with a poor district, rather than cutting the district altogether and making kids find another district to go to. If it means that they’re making up for lost Friday’s by making the day’s longer, than there is no difference. An hour and 10 minutes a day adds up to just about another school day and that amount of time isn’t that bad at all. I would be totally into the four-day-school-week idea. I don’t think this new prompt will have any negative or positive effects on kids’ schooling… other than kids getting an extra day to sleep in, which we all need in order to pay attention in school
I think that a four day week could be benificial because if the schools are in as bad of shape as the article says it is, this might be the best way to cut costs and save the schools some money. If the days were extended, then I don’t think that students would miss out on anything they should be learning so I would support the idea of a 4 day school week
As much as i would love to have a 3 day weekend every week, i would find it very difficult to go to school for an extra hour each day. Even though an hour doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, i know to some kids, including myself, it would feel like a lifetime. By the time kids make it to their last class they are so exhausted and mentally drained that they don’t want to do any school work at all. So staying for an extra hour would make kids even more tired and it would push back sports practice later than usual. Although kids would get an extra day to do homework and relax, i don’t think the late weeknights would be worth it.
I think that a 3 day weekend would be fun for everyone teachers would have more time to prepare lessons students could have more fun and parents may or may not get to spend more time with there kids.
I personnally like the idea of having a three-day weekend. There’s more alone time for you. The downside? You’ve still got some homework to do.
I think its an ok idea, but having another day of weekend will also add another day to kids not in school,reviewing what they are learning.Which will make it harder for students to remember things between classes,and this could lower test scores. also, most parents will have to find a place for their kids to go because parents will still be working. I think it is just too much of a change that doesnt need to happen. Maybe the schools need to look at their spending habits better.
I think there is no point in having the three day weekend. That’s less learning and more time in a day at school. Kids don’t even want to be at school for the 8 hours now so why make it longer? ou think you can’t pass that class now? Wait until you get less education!!!!
Having a 3-day weekend is a great idea for poor districts to manage their $$$$. But the idea of having students coming to school for an xtra hour is harder on the students. I personally don’t like the idea of coming to school for an xtra hour but if that helps the school bring more money into school, I guess it couldn’t be so bad.
I think that this is a good suggestion for cutting back on money issues, but I think the school day would be too long. Some days just seem so long just going to school 8am-3pm. Another hour would make sense in order to save money, but I think kids would be too tired all the time. After school activities would be pushed back and the day would drag on forver. I would love to have a 3 day weekend all the time but I know that I would be exhausted.
I think this is a simple, cut and clear approach to solving financial issues. Three day weekends are great, allowing students to get sufficient rest enough to focus better in school. School days are 1 hour, 1 hour 10 minutes longer? I think it’s really no problem at all; it pretty much makes up for the replaced day. Sure, classes should be lengthened if we have 4 days of school per week, but we would also need a reform of the schedule so that students’ minds aren’t droning and brain dead, and do not feel like they’re having information drilled into their skull by the end of the day. Like with longer breaks maybe. Any other ideas? “Education is not the filling of a pale but the lighting of a fire” -William Butler Yeats
I think the idea of a four day weekend has its upsides and its downsides. The upside would obviously be having a three day weekend all the time. This would then become normal and not as special after a while. The downside is going to school for an extra hour a day. This would effect many things such as kids trying to go to work after schhol, sports teams that have practices right after school, and just being at school for an extra hour would take some getting used to. You then would have less time to do homework at night and other activities such as that.
I think that switching to a four day school week is a bad idea. It would be nice having an extra day on the weekend, but there are many down falls to it as well. A lot of students play sports after school or other extra circular actives, which would have to be pushed later as well, causing them to have less time at home in the evenings. If they have less time at night at home, where and when would those students get the time to do the hours of homework that teachers pile on students? Also for the littler kids who need childcare would be hard for parents, making this more money for the parents. The school might be saving money, but the parents of some of the kids are loosing money.
I think that three day school weeks are a fabulous idea. Not only would it cut costs for the schools but it would also benefit the students. The school wouldn’t have to pay for an extra day of transportation and school lunches. I know that if I had an extra off, I would be more willing to go to school and do my homework. The downsides to having a three day weekend would be that school would be in session longer and some parents would have to find daycare for their kids. Overall, I don’t think a three day weekend is a bad idea.
I barely make it through our school days today. I can’t imagine having to pull through another couple hours. I don’t care if my weekend is longer, I’ll be so burnt out in those four days that my weekend won’t matter. In addition to this, the first day back will be difficult because I’ll still be in “weekend mode.”
I think that a four day school week would be more extrainious on students because it would cause for more class time and posibly more homework. yes the extra day of the weekend would be nice but for some they like to have their days more spread out instead of having so much time at school for one day. As for the school budgets, it is basically necissary if the school needs money and thats the best way to cut back on; but other than that i dont see any good in making school weeks only four days
By reading through prompt I believe four-day-school- weeks sound pretty nice to me. About an hour or so extra a day wouldn’t bother me as long as we got something else in return… friday off. Where my grandma & grandpa live they have schooling like this. It always seemed not as long and not as stressful. One extra day to get awayyy
By reading through prompt I believe four-day-school- weeks sound pretty nice to me. About an hour or so extra a day wouldn’t bother me as long as we got something else in return… friday off. Where my grandma & grandpa live they have schooling like this. It always seemed not as long and not as stressful. One extra day to get awayyy.
A four day week would be awesome, but I don’t think I could handle being in school any longer than we already are. I mean for schools that are financially in trouble this sounds like a great alternative, but for our school I would have to say no. Going to school for an extra hour and a half and then going to a sport, club, band, ex. after school for another hour and a half to two hours then going home trying to do your homework and study for your tests would be nearly impossible. If it was the only option the school had though to help them financially it isn’t an impossible idea and really if they are havin trouble with there money how many clubs and sports can they really afford to have so it might work out great for them.
I definitely agree with the idea of reducing the school week from 5 days to 4. Not only would the transition be cost-effective for states, but it would provide students with an entire extra day of the weekend. That means one less day to bus in students, ship food for lunches, waste gas to drive to school, and overall, wake up at 6am. Although some students may argue they would not be able to handle the extra hour of school, the benefits of it in the long run definitely would pay off. However, for some teachers, that might mean that they would assign more of an intensive workload, but you would also have more time to do it. If school weeks were indeed reduced, then it would involve a major transition for everyone, but it is nothing that we aren’t fully capable of dealing with when and if the time comes.
Wow — great points, guys! Especially the parts about after school activities and such… A lot of the people in the articles are just thinking about test scores and money, but really, it’s good to hear how it would affect the students directly. Those school days can seem to drag on forever, and when you factor in practices, games, and club meetings, it would be forever before getting home!!
I think three day weekends are a terrible idea. America is already becoming less competitive with the rest of the world, and school districts simply need to find another way to raise money. It blows my mind that education, one of the most important things we COULD spend our money on, is not respected. The government should focus first and foremost on providing money for schools so we have some of the smartest, most competitive kids in the world.
Also, going to school every day prepares kids for their lives later. If you think high school has long days, wait until college. And I wouldn’t know, but I hear the real world is even more difficult.
We sshould definitely focus on more schooling, not less.
I’d be interested to see studies about how the length of the day affects children, too. I think an extra hour added on to an elementary school kid’s day would be really difficult.
Great topic and post, ForeverPlaid!
Yes this all is true but we need a break sometimes so I think that a 3 day weekend maybe, let say, once a month wouldn’t be so bad.
I think a 3 day weekend will be just perfect because we will have a chance to be involved in other activities outside of school, we will get time to finish some homework and best of all we will get a chance to RELAX!
I think we should have a four day week. its better not to stress out a lot, if you think about it. teacher get a lot of stress from kids attuide. and kids get attuide from waking up to early or staying in school to long. if we get four day weeken it take out a lot of stress.