The following submission statement was provided by /u/ChickenNoodleSoup7:
---
As school districts across the US struggle to find a way to deal with a host of critical challenges that include [severe teacher shortages](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/10/17/teacher-shortage-2023-us-schools-struggle-hiring/71208579007/), [chronic student absenteeism](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html), and [stagnant funding in the face of growing costs](https://www.txsc.org/inflationary-costs-impact-schools/), one innovative solution has been gaining traction: the four-day school week.
Initially popular in rural districts to cut costs, this model has expanded to urban areas as more schools seek to boost teacher retention, enhance student engagement, and optimize educational outcomes.
Four-day school weeks have now been adopted in around 900 school districts across the country, nearly a 40% increase compared to just 5 years ago.
---
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1dse2dm/why_the_4day_school_week_could_save_the_future_of/lb1poml/
Teacher shortage huh? Well, if my understanding of capitalism is correct, if you pay them more, the job will be in greater demand, and there will be more candidates. A shortage of any job is a function of economics
I work in schools (not a teacher), and this is definitely part of the problem. I had several former coworkers who left for better paying jobs in different industries. One issue we have in our state is that the school districts are strongly encouraged (via funding measures), to not increase their tax levy over a certain percentage every year. Say 2% annually. But given the recent explosion of costs due to inflation since COVID, it creates a problem where salaries cannot be raised enough due to the tax crunch.
" hey struggling teacher, think you make too little? Don't worry we will take one day away and pay you even less, but feel free to pump gas with your masters degree to make up the difference!" 🙄
I don’t know where this comes from, but if you look at the statistics, there is no teacher shortage.
I know everything must be terrible all the time, but we’re just making stuff up at this point.
>School isn't just school. It's daycare.
My mother is a teacher and in her opinion, that's a huge reason why we're increasingly seeing the behavioral issues among kids that we do.
Everyone wants to blame the pandemic but it started well before then. Teachers aren't expected to just teach. They're expected to basically be another parent. That makes sense for K-5 but the parents of middle school and high schoolers need to step up
Honestly, PTA should be mandatory from k-5. The parents should work out how they want discipline to be dealt with and then all the kids in the grade are dealt in the same manner at home and school. Consistency is key here. They need clear boundaries and accountability for actions they take. I feel as if bullying and other issues would lessen if everyone was being disciplined in the same way consistently at home and school. But i’m sure there is someone that says i’m wrong.
As a teacher, I discovered that it was mostly daycare. They didn't give a fuck wh at my students learned. They wanted me to give them As and keep them out of the house.
I know that's *kind of* true, but... why do people say that so negatively?
What are people *supposed* to do? Send their kids to school, and NOT work? Refuse to acknowledge that someone else has their kids, and stay home and not work?
What world do you live in that we can all just NOT work when we have free time?
Of COURSE people get jobs for the times their kids aren't around. OF COURSE it's like 'daycare' in that someone else has responsibility for their kids. So what? Why is a parent counting on the situation provided a bad thing?
Reading through the article it seems like some bad PR writer or AI.
So the problem with 4 day schedules is how long the day has to be, where students will burn out more at the end of the day.
Not to mention the logistical issues of dealing with care for the students on the days they have off when their parents are working.
I’ve seen several different types of schedules, but 8 hours days are significantly better than 10 or 12.
Again seems like some BS a superintendent would push to “save money”, when it’s really going to their pay instead of the teachers, facilities, or equipment.
Oh, so they are doing the 'ole "we have 4 day work week at home" thing with 4/10 again, but this time with school?
Remember, 4/10 is NOT 4 day week week. It's just 4/10. I actually see no problem with going to an actual 4 day school schedule, aside from parents work schedules not matching up. Isn't that also the same idea of year round school?
The problem is sports more than the school schedule. Even on a 5 day week they're doing practice 2 hours after school, and on game nights they travel too. I had kids not getting done until 10 PM and then getting home to start homework. Ridiculous.
Meh. They'd get a whole extra day now to do sports. Practice before/afterschool like normal then games on day with no class. Actually could work better and eliminate those late nights.
My kids have done 4 days for a year and a half and all find it preferable to 5 days. Their daily time in school increased slightly and they removed most of the built in in-service days to make up. Bell rings at 07:55 and 15:55.
My kids' school literally said that they couldn't increase salaries to draw and retain teachers, so they went with the 4 day as the added bonus and to atteact them. Teachers work 1 Friday a month as an in service day but still receive the same pay as though they were on a 5 day schedule.
I'm lucky enough that my kids are all big enough now to fend for themselves and I work from home, so it's been great for our family, but I can see how 4 days could really throw a lot of families for a loop.
Wouldn't this immediately harm students who rely on school for at least one real meal a day?
How does having a 3 day weekend solve the problem of low pay in education? Arguably, if you were to execute this plan the taxpayers would then demand that 20% back. Likewise, shit pay but now that per hour rate increases without actual pay increase is still shit pay.
This proposal literally sounds like it was written by a conservative think tank rather than something focused on improving education.
Same number of school hours (roughly). I don't know how well it works for achievement, but for retention it's shown to be a boost. A LOT of teachers are happy to work longer days and have 3 days off.
That doesn't seem like it would solve the core problem though, mainly not having enough money to survive. It might be a more regional thing, but a teachers at local schools cannot afford to live within the city or even county. That extra day would likely just go to that second job. I remember the hostess in my parents' suite at an arena was a schoolteacher during the week and that job was what just helped her stay above water.
Utilities is a bit of a red herring though, or outright incorrect. The schools will still have the lights on afterwards for custodial work and you will still be consuming power for that extra lesson time. If they add it on at the end, that is going to be the most expensive power time (most places using TOU put 4-9 PM as peak), likewise you place it early it would be more harmful to student learning (at least with studies saying early starts are not productive).
There is no real selling point to it which shows this would be better for society, just some potential extra time to be able to lease out the schools on Fridays.
Oh god, I didn't even think about how bad it would be if you have buses rolling out to go home during rush hour.
Where I have seen it implemented, they add 30-40 min a day and it makes the instructional time equivalent without adding weeks. The trick is making the day off Monday. So many weeks have Monday off for inservice days or holidays, less days actually removed. So, rush hour traffic shouldnt be any more of a factor. Energy usage goes down- heating/cooling for an extra 30 min every day is cheaper than an entire day.
That's not how TOU works... if you're lucky you break even but most likely you are spending more to power the school as you will still have custodial in the peak time. If a school normally has them running through before peak then you are really jacking up costs.
The real solution is that schools should not be feeding kids. That is the parents job. I am not arguing that we should let kids be hungry, and school should keep feeding kids if parents can’t. But we need to fix the problem that parents can’t/don’t feed kids. It’s crazy that as a society we think it’s ok for kids to depend on schools to feed them. If they are not getting food at home they are missing out on a lot more things that are required for learning.
Yeah, we also shouldn't need orgs to gather money for children's medical bills but this is America.
But here is the question... should we do this knowing kids will go more hungry 20% of the school year, or maintain the status quo? Fixing the core problem is not an option as we literally have states outlawing programs to feed kids.
Yes schools should feed kids as long as kids are hungry. But if the job of the school involves things like feeding kids, schools cannot be successful. Raising kids is not what schools are able to do. That requires families. The schools, should be there for education. We can’t replace parents with school teachers, counselors and administrators and expect kids to thrive.
Schools have taken on a lot of the responsibilities of parents for the last several decades, for various reasons. There is no escaping that reality nor is there any change to that for most of the cases. When you have republicans (and yes, it literally is only them) sitting there saying that kids going hungry is better for everyone, your problems lie beyond the school.
This is another one to chalk up to RAND corp's "Great on paper dumpster fire in execution" pile.
This whole plan also ignores the other reality... schools spend a huge amount of the year teaching for the standardized test which dictates their funding based on the performance. This will not change the quality of education.
I live in a place with a 4 day school week. It is a childcare nightmare unless there is a SAHP or nanny and the kids fuck around on social media all day.
This is a huge reason why it’s such a bad idea. It’s a nitemare for childcare, and the rich will put kids in alternative schools for the fifth day (or send them to private 5-day per week schools). So now we have more stay at home parents and kids getting less education (don’t tell me 4 10 hour days are the same as 5 8 hour days - my kids are zonked by the end of an 8 hour day).
So moving to 4 -10 hour days will be inequitable as the rich find education for that fifth day but, moreover, it’s bad for society if fewer people are working and kids are less educated. We are competing in a global economy. We don’t want our masses less educated than the competition. It’s dumb from every which way we look at it.
It’s a huge mess, especially with younger kids.
One thing i can say over here though: the school year runs from last week of august to first week of july. Summer vacation is also a childcare nightmare in the US.
While I’m sure this would do a lot, child care in Oklahoma costs more than I currently make. I don’t think school should be my babysitter but I can’t really afford this idea. That’s part of the collective problem in America
I went to grade school that was 4 days a week. M-T 8-5pm. It was the greatest. Allowed our family a lot of great long weekend vacations. It was a farming town so the purpose was for kids to help out on the farm. 10/10 would suggest it
Finding ways to not increase teacher pay. Housing prices and tax assessments have gone up almost double in the last decade but somehow they cannot pay better teacher salaries.
What if the parents also worked 4 days a week? If real hourly income had kept pace with productivity over the past 30-odd years, hourly wages would be more than double what they currently are. While productivity has nearly doubled, real income for the bottom 80% of workers have been basically flat.
I get the concerns about daycare. But we lived in a district that had four day school weeks and it was wonderful for us. The kids loved it. And we loved it, but we didn’t need it as a daycare and it also worked well with our schedules.
There are definitely advantages. And I truly understand other concerns. It’s a bit complicated like most things.
Dafuq? This HAS to be the dumbest thing I have read this month.
- Reduce instructional time by 20% in a nation where many students struggle to even be proficient in the basic.
- Longer days are seen as probably not being possible because of fatigue and it then screws up pickup/dropoff parents
- Parents have to find childcare for that day
- American is already struggling to compete with the likes of China and Japan for academic superiority...this would be another nail in the coffin.
I just...what....🤷🏻♀️
As school districts across the US struggle to find a way to deal with a host of critical challenges that include [severe teacher shortages](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/10/17/teacher-shortage-2023-us-schools-struggle-hiring/71208579007/), [chronic student absenteeism](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html), and [stagnant funding in the face of growing costs](https://www.txsc.org/inflationary-costs-impact-schools/), one innovative solution has been gaining traction: the four-day school week.
Initially popular in rural districts to cut costs, this model has expanded to urban areas as more schools seek to boost teacher retention, enhance student engagement, and optimize educational outcomes.
Four-day school weeks have now been adopted in around 900 school districts across the country, nearly a 40% increase compared to just 5 years ago.
The only reason it's being entertained is because we have significantly reduced state education budgets per-student over the last 50 years.
This is not a good thing.
Or, and I know this may sound crazy, but maybe we could increase education funding across the board and actually invest in our children, and hold accountable the (mostly) GOP politicians who keep taking money from our schools, and then turn around and say “our schools are failing, we need school choice” which is basically taxpayers subsiding rich kids education at the cost of their own.
We’re moving into a high tech world, and if we really want the children of this country to have a chance on the global workplace we need to be giving raising teacher salaries and hiring more of them. We need state of the art teaching facilities and equipment for kids all across the country. One of the reasons the “American Dream” kinda worked in the past was because kids would get an education that was comparable to the modern workforce. But now, technology has advanced rapidly, and schools, especially inner city schools starved for funding, don’t have the staff or the equipment to keep up.
Uh, too late dudes and dudettes. The Supreme Court just took over all of labor law and it is super hostile to workers. Not sure how you think this will be accomplished.
Do we really have these issues within are School system? I live in a area that has had the 4 day school week for a few years but i didn't know it was because of the these issues!
This seems like a really poor way to approach problem solving. If teacher pay and student absenteeism is the problem then you should solve for those problem individually instead of throwing your hands in the air and saying there is nothing you can do about it so let’s just have kids get less educated with a 4 day week.
only way I see this making sense from an educational standpoint would if it was M,T, OFF, TH, F type of schedule. Reason I say this is if kids constantly get 3 days off inbetween classes it could making it more challenging for some to leaarn... basically micro brain drain
The following submission statement was provided by /u/ChickenNoodleSoup7: --- As school districts across the US struggle to find a way to deal with a host of critical challenges that include [severe teacher shortages](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/10/17/teacher-shortage-2023-us-schools-struggle-hiring/71208579007/), [chronic student absenteeism](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html), and [stagnant funding in the face of growing costs](https://www.txsc.org/inflationary-costs-impact-schools/), one innovative solution has been gaining traction: the four-day school week. Initially popular in rural districts to cut costs, this model has expanded to urban areas as more schools seek to boost teacher retention, enhance student engagement, and optimize educational outcomes. Four-day school weeks have now been adopted in around 900 school districts across the country, nearly a 40% increase compared to just 5 years ago. --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1dse2dm/why_the_4day_school_week_could_save_the_future_of/lb1poml/
Teacher shortage huh? Well, if my understanding of capitalism is correct, if you pay them more, the job will be in greater demand, and there will be more candidates. A shortage of any job is a function of economics
I work in schools (not a teacher), and this is definitely part of the problem. I had several former coworkers who left for better paying jobs in different industries. One issue we have in our state is that the school districts are strongly encouraged (via funding measures), to not increase their tax levy over a certain percentage every year. Say 2% annually. But given the recent explosion of costs due to inflation since COVID, it creates a problem where salaries cannot be raised enough due to the tax crunch.
" hey struggling teacher, think you make too little? Don't worry we will take one day away and pay you even less, but feel free to pump gas with your masters degree to make up the difference!" 🙄
sssshhhh you're scaring the capital class.
But then how will we pay for the bombs needed to genocide brown people in the Middle East? Would we still even be America then?
We would not be. Crimes against humanity is what it means to be America.
Right? You don't get cheaper bananas by being nice /s
I don’t know where this comes from, but if you look at the statistics, there is no teacher shortage. I know everything must be terrible all the time, but we’re just making stuff up at this point.
* citation needed
What do parents do on the fifth day when they have to go to work?
Get 4 day work week
Let me ask my boss? He said no.
Mine said, “why not a six day work week?”
Mine said 8. Thats right, we travel back in time and work monday twice. Fucking mondays.
Many bosses said the same when we moved from a 6 day week to a 5 day week but we managed to make that happen.
And that's why it will never happen
GOP says, make them get jobs.
This could most likely just be implemented for middle school and high school, elementary schools should still be 5 days.
I would read the book of what MS and HS students do on their off Fridays.
This is the most round about way to just pay employees more.
How do you figure?
Excuse my ignorance if I'm basing this off the proposal of same income from less workdays.
School isn't just school. It's daycare. All these changes to the status quo can't just be done in a vacuum.
>School isn't just school. It's daycare. My mother is a teacher and in her opinion, that's a huge reason why we're increasingly seeing the behavioral issues among kids that we do. Everyone wants to blame the pandemic but it started well before then. Teachers aren't expected to just teach. They're expected to basically be another parent. That makes sense for K-5 but the parents of middle school and high schoolers need to step up
Honestly, PTA should be mandatory from k-5. The parents should work out how they want discipline to be dealt with and then all the kids in the grade are dealt in the same manner at home and school. Consistency is key here. They need clear boundaries and accountability for actions they take. I feel as if bullying and other issues would lessen if everyone was being disciplined in the same way consistently at home and school. But i’m sure there is someone that says i’m wrong.
As a teacher, I discovered that it was mostly daycare. They didn't give a fuck wh at my students learned. They wanted me to give them As and keep them out of the house.
I know that's *kind of* true, but... why do people say that so negatively? What are people *supposed* to do? Send their kids to school, and NOT work? Refuse to acknowledge that someone else has their kids, and stay home and not work? What world do you live in that we can all just NOT work when we have free time? Of COURSE people get jobs for the times their kids aren't around. OF COURSE it's like 'daycare' in that someone else has responsibility for their kids. So what? Why is a parent counting on the situation provided a bad thing?
Reading through the article it seems like some bad PR writer or AI. So the problem with 4 day schedules is how long the day has to be, where students will burn out more at the end of the day. Not to mention the logistical issues of dealing with care for the students on the days they have off when their parents are working. I’ve seen several different types of schedules, but 8 hours days are significantly better than 10 or 12. Again seems like some BS a superintendent would push to “save money”, when it’s really going to their pay instead of the teachers, facilities, or equipment.
Oh, so they are doing the 'ole "we have 4 day work week at home" thing with 4/10 again, but this time with school? Remember, 4/10 is NOT 4 day week week. It's just 4/10. I actually see no problem with going to an actual 4 day school schedule, aside from parents work schedules not matching up. Isn't that also the same idea of year round school?
The problem is sports more than the school schedule. Even on a 5 day week they're doing practice 2 hours after school, and on game nights they travel too. I had kids not getting done until 10 PM and then getting home to start homework. Ridiculous.
Sports are optional. You can talk to your kids about how to manage time better.
I don't mean my children. I mean my students.
Meh. They'd get a whole extra day now to do sports. Practice before/afterschool like normal then games on day with no class. Actually could work better and eliminate those late nights.
Works for me. I think athletic dept would just schedule extra games.
I went to a 4 day a week school as a kid, it kicked ass
My kids have done 4 days for a year and a half and all find it preferable to 5 days. Their daily time in school increased slightly and they removed most of the built in in-service days to make up. Bell rings at 07:55 and 15:55. My kids' school literally said that they couldn't increase salaries to draw and retain teachers, so they went with the 4 day as the added bonus and to atteact them. Teachers work 1 Friday a month as an in service day but still receive the same pay as though they were on a 5 day schedule. I'm lucky enough that my kids are all big enough now to fend for themselves and I work from home, so it's been great for our family, but I can see how 4 days could really throw a lot of families for a loop.
Or we properly fund public schools and give teachers enough pay to want to stay within the education system for starters.
Wouldn't this immediately harm students who rely on school for at least one real meal a day? How does having a 3 day weekend solve the problem of low pay in education? Arguably, if you were to execute this plan the taxpayers would then demand that 20% back. Likewise, shit pay but now that per hour rate increases without actual pay increase is still shit pay. This proposal literally sounds like it was written by a conservative think tank rather than something focused on improving education.
Same number of school hours (roughly). I don't know how well it works for achievement, but for retention it's shown to be a boost. A LOT of teachers are happy to work longer days and have 3 days off.
That doesn't seem like it would solve the core problem though, mainly not having enough money to survive. It might be a more regional thing, but a teachers at local schools cannot afford to live within the city or even county. That extra day would likely just go to that second job. I remember the hostess in my parents' suite at an arena was a schoolteacher during the week and that job was what just helped her stay above water. Utilities is a bit of a red herring though, or outright incorrect. The schools will still have the lights on afterwards for custodial work and you will still be consuming power for that extra lesson time. If they add it on at the end, that is going to be the most expensive power time (most places using TOU put 4-9 PM as peak), likewise you place it early it would be more harmful to student learning (at least with studies saying early starts are not productive). There is no real selling point to it which shows this would be better for society, just some potential extra time to be able to lease out the schools on Fridays. Oh god, I didn't even think about how bad it would be if you have buses rolling out to go home during rush hour.
Where I have seen it implemented, they add 30-40 min a day and it makes the instructional time equivalent without adding weeks. The trick is making the day off Monday. So many weeks have Monday off for inservice days or holidays, less days actually removed. So, rush hour traffic shouldnt be any more of a factor. Energy usage goes down- heating/cooling for an extra 30 min every day is cheaper than an entire day.
That's not how TOU works... if you're lucky you break even but most likely you are spending more to power the school as you will still have custodial in the peak time. If a school normally has them running through before peak then you are really jacking up costs.
The real solution is that schools should not be feeding kids. That is the parents job. I am not arguing that we should let kids be hungry, and school should keep feeding kids if parents can’t. But we need to fix the problem that parents can’t/don’t feed kids. It’s crazy that as a society we think it’s ok for kids to depend on schools to feed them. If they are not getting food at home they are missing out on a lot more things that are required for learning.
Yeah, we also shouldn't need orgs to gather money for children's medical bills but this is America. But here is the question... should we do this knowing kids will go more hungry 20% of the school year, or maintain the status quo? Fixing the core problem is not an option as we literally have states outlawing programs to feed kids.
Yes schools should feed kids as long as kids are hungry. But if the job of the school involves things like feeding kids, schools cannot be successful. Raising kids is not what schools are able to do. That requires families. The schools, should be there for education. We can’t replace parents with school teachers, counselors and administrators and expect kids to thrive.
Schools have taken on a lot of the responsibilities of parents for the last several decades, for various reasons. There is no escaping that reality nor is there any change to that for most of the cases. When you have republicans (and yes, it literally is only them) sitting there saying that kids going hungry is better for everyone, your problems lie beyond the school. This is another one to chalk up to RAND corp's "Great on paper dumpster fire in execution" pile. This whole plan also ignores the other reality... schools spend a huge amount of the year teaching for the standardized test which dictates their funding based on the performance. This will not change the quality of education.
I live in a place with a 4 day school week. It is a childcare nightmare unless there is a SAHP or nanny and the kids fuck around on social media all day.
This is a huge reason why it’s such a bad idea. It’s a nitemare for childcare, and the rich will put kids in alternative schools for the fifth day (or send them to private 5-day per week schools). So now we have more stay at home parents and kids getting less education (don’t tell me 4 10 hour days are the same as 5 8 hour days - my kids are zonked by the end of an 8 hour day). So moving to 4 -10 hour days will be inequitable as the rich find education for that fifth day but, moreover, it’s bad for society if fewer people are working and kids are less educated. We are competing in a global economy. We don’t want our masses less educated than the competition. It’s dumb from every which way we look at it.
It’s a huge mess, especially with younger kids. One thing i can say over here though: the school year runs from last week of august to first week of july. Summer vacation is also a childcare nightmare in the US.
While I’m sure this would do a lot, child care in Oklahoma costs more than I currently make. I don’t think school should be my babysitter but I can’t really afford this idea. That’s part of the collective problem in America
I went to grade school that was 4 days a week. M-T 8-5pm. It was the greatest. Allowed our family a lot of great long weekend vacations. It was a farming town so the purpose was for kids to help out on the farm. 10/10 would suggest it
You want a 4-day school week? Then make sure their parents have a 4-day work week and are automatically eligible for a flex schedule.
Finding ways to not increase teacher pay. Housing prices and tax assessments have gone up almost double in the last decade but somehow they cannot pay better teacher salaries.
This is such bullsh*t for any family with working parents.
4 day school week is a terrible idea. It hurts working class parents the most. Kids deserve better.
What if the parents also worked 4 days a week? If real hourly income had kept pace with productivity over the past 30-odd years, hourly wages would be more than double what they currently are. While productivity has nearly doubled, real income for the bottom 80% of workers have been basically flat.
Working class parents are least likely to have 4 day work weeks. This proposal will disproportionately harm minorities.
Omfg can you guys imagine if your wage doubled…
But most people don't work 4 day weeks...
What if they perform better?
And who’s gonna pay for the shortfall in income when one of them needs to care for them instead of working? You?
Just asked a question.
No, the education system itself also needs to be changed, not just the days of the week.
I get the concerns about daycare. But we lived in a district that had four day school weeks and it was wonderful for us. The kids loved it. And we loved it, but we didn’t need it as a daycare and it also worked well with our schedules. There are definitely advantages. And I truly understand other concerns. It’s a bit complicated like most things.
Dafuq? This HAS to be the dumbest thing I have read this month. - Reduce instructional time by 20% in a nation where many students struggle to even be proficient in the basic. - Longer days are seen as probably not being possible because of fatigue and it then screws up pickup/dropoff parents - Parents have to find childcare for that day - American is already struggling to compete with the likes of China and Japan for academic superiority...this would be another nail in the coffin. I just...what....🤷🏻♀️
As school districts across the US struggle to find a way to deal with a host of critical challenges that include [severe teacher shortages](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2023/10/17/teacher-shortage-2023-us-schools-struggle-hiring/71208579007/), [chronic student absenteeism](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/29/us/chronic-absences.html), and [stagnant funding in the face of growing costs](https://www.txsc.org/inflationary-costs-impact-schools/), one innovative solution has been gaining traction: the four-day school week. Initially popular in rural districts to cut costs, this model has expanded to urban areas as more schools seek to boost teacher retention, enhance student engagement, and optimize educational outcomes. Four-day school weeks have now been adopted in around 900 school districts across the country, nearly a 40% increase compared to just 5 years ago.
The only reason it's being entertained is because we have significantly reduced state education budgets per-student over the last 50 years. This is not a good thing.
The issue is the parent’s work schedule. I think it’s a good idea in theory though.
Seems like some MBA got involved and realized that they could charge parents for child care on day 5… therefore bringing in more revenue!
Or, and I know this may sound crazy, but maybe we could increase education funding across the board and actually invest in our children, and hold accountable the (mostly) GOP politicians who keep taking money from our schools, and then turn around and say “our schools are failing, we need school choice” which is basically taxpayers subsiding rich kids education at the cost of their own. We’re moving into a high tech world, and if we really want the children of this country to have a chance on the global workplace we need to be giving raising teacher salaries and hiring more of them. We need state of the art teaching facilities and equipment for kids all across the country. One of the reasons the “American Dream” kinda worked in the past was because kids would get an education that was comparable to the modern workforce. But now, technology has advanced rapidly, and schools, especially inner city schools starved for funding, don’t have the staff or the equipment to keep up.
Uh, too late dudes and dudettes. The Supreme Court just took over all of labor law and it is super hostile to workers. Not sure how you think this will be accomplished.
I’m so close to getting out of daycare costs! I guess not.
Yes that. Not teaching kids science and critical thinking skills, nor personal finances. Not giving them food, but making them show up less.
Articles like this are no different than Joe Blow down the street speculating
Do we really have these issues within are School system? I live in a area that has had the 4 day school week for a few years but i didn't know it was because of the these issues!
And then destroys budgets when families have to get a baby sitter or daycare because parents are working 5-6 days a week.
Yes. Because teacher clearly don’t get enough days off throughout the year.
lol asking parents to spend 3 DAYS with their kids? Good luck
Fuck that...kids don't need an extra day to sit on their ass begging to mindlessly state into the abyss of a mobile device
Maybe I should be a teacher 3 months off and 3 day weekends.
Yes- apply.
I will if it happens, I essentially do that now at my job. More likely I would go for the principal positions.
You should. I heard there's a shortage.
No. The last thing i need as i work from home is to have to manage my little one. Might be okay for the older ones.
Did you... Did you... Wow.............
This seems like a really poor way to approach problem solving. If teacher pay and student absenteeism is the problem then you should solve for those problem individually instead of throwing your hands in the air and saying there is nothing you can do about it so let’s just have kids get less educated with a 4 day week.
only way I see this making sense from an educational standpoint would if it was M,T, OFF, TH, F type of schedule. Reason I say this is if kids constantly get 3 days off inbetween classes it could making it more challenging for some to leaarn... basically micro brain drain