Extended School Year Would Have Dire Economic Effects, Critics Say

Fox News ^ | 9/29/09 | Cristina Corbin

[Nachum]

If the academic year gets pushed deeper into summer, as President Obama is advocating, the grumbling will not be limited just to students and teachers who will be forced to spend more days in school.

Critics say the president's call for a longer academic calendar and a shorter summer vacation will bring on a host of unintended consequences -- including increased costs for school systems, major cuts to the nation's hotel and tourism industries, and a serious blow to summer camp operators.

Obama says kids in the U.S. spend too little time in the classroom, putting them at a disadvantage when competing with students in other countries. The president has suggested that making school days longer and extending the school year will increase learning, raise test scores and close the achievement gap.

But while Obama's proposal is meant to improve education, critics say a curtailed summer vacation will have a dire economic impact on school systems, which could be forced to retrofit their schools for air conditioning, pay overtime to teachers and incur higher utility costs

[paul51]

The tendency by both parties to leap into nice sounding ideas based on shallow and narrow thinking without deeper consideration of the wide range of ramifications and longer term consequences is amazing. Stupid people do this a lot.

[rwfromkansas]

Which if you combine the two facts seems to indicate that frankly a slightly longer school year (maybe 15 days) combined with a slightly shorter school day by an hour or so is the best solution.

[Rockingham]

A better choice would be to emulate Finland’s exceptional educational system in its on emphasis high teacher quality and a demanding curriculum. That would, of course, require breaking the teacher unions and their deadly grip on American education.

[pnh102]

How come schools used to be able to do the job with just 180ish days a year of instruction?

[Scotswife]

Problem is...the stupid people don’t even know what they don’t know.
All they know is that they are superior and those who oppose them are dumb hicks.

[Scotswife]

It’s a good point and the same thinking can be applied to spending and taxes.

The left loves spending and taxes - when things get bad they apply more as things get worse and worse.

And with education - not getting the job done right? Let’s add more of the same stuff that’s causing the problem in the first place!

[FrankR]

"Obama says kids in the U.S. spend too little time in the classroom, putting them at a disadvantage when competing with students in other countries."

The problem with education has less to do with how much time is spent in the classroom, and more as how that time is utilized.

What are we competing with the world over???? Who can put a condom on a cucumber in the fastest time, or the entire cradle to grave history of MLK and civil rights?

Maybe a closer focus on long division and less on diversity would be helpful. A couple of classes on business and job training and less on how to fill out welfare forms would be of a great advantage.

A little American history would go a long way in instilling pride into little American brains, and take the edge off worrying about the rest of the world for a while. Of course, the liberal have made it sinful to be proud of our country, haven't they.

Relatively speaking, very few people make their living singing and dancing; but the generation we have now all want to be "stars". We have raised a generation so starved for attention that they will sell their souls to the devil for one round of applause. Those who don't get it, turn to crime, drugs, or just plain bad attitudes because they didn't get theirs.

And last - but not least - DISCIPLINE. So long as the brats are disruptive with bad attitudes and gang/bullly mentalitites, then no learning will make it's way into the little "skulls full of mush".

[Hodar]

Teachers get a salary, a yearly salary with benefits that run the entire school year. The actual number of days they work is in the neighborhood of ~170. Let's contrast that with Mr. and Mrs. America. 365 days in a year, minus 104 for weekends, 10 for holidays and 10 for vacation. This means that the typical American works 241 days.

So, let's compare salaries based upon work days. Let's not go into the triviliaties of which degree is rougher, education, chemistry, bio-sciences, physics, engineering, law and such. Let's stick to the numbers.

Teachers work a theoretical 170 days, everyone else gets 240. So Teachers work 170/241; or 70.5% of what everyone else works. But wait, that's not fair. Teachers also get vacation time during the school year, because spring and fall break, a month off over Christmas and 3 months over the summer are not enough.

Allowing for this, we find that teachers actually work about 33% fewer days than anyone else. An added plus, is that after as few as 3 years, they cannot be fired - no matter how poorly they perform their job. Wouldn't that be nice?

Or, you could go here and see how rough they have it.

Imagine, paid more than a comparable state worker, getting 15 weeks of paid vacation a year, and having tenure after just 3 years.

[mlizzy]

I have come to the conclusion that WHATEVER this guys suggests we do, we should instead do exactly the opposite and we’ll be just fine.

LOL. I've been thinking the very same thing ...

[ChocChipCookie]

I think it’s now apparent that there is no area of our lives that BHO doesn’t think he can manage better than we.

[Right Wing Assault]

If he’s as smart a some people pretend, he would have known this. Or, he knows and he wants to screw the economy anyway.

[Debacled]

So how’s that HOPE and CHANGE working out? Muahahaha

[tioga]

"The more time that kids have on being instructed on academic subjects, the more likely they'll score higher."

maybe if they quit teaching kids to sing......."Barrack Hussein Obama, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm"......then they could actually teach reading, writing and 'rithmatic.

[HollyB]

My son asked me last night if I could homeschool him - if this came about. I don’t think this is going to go over well with anyone. Kids have a life after 3:00 - sports, being with their families, doing homework, maybe a pt job, or just playing and being children.

This administration seems to think that all kids are in situations like those kids in Chicago we saw in the video. He’s spent so much time community organizing that he doesn’t understand life outside of urban dwelling. Many, many children are being raised well, involved in academics, sports, and are handling responsibility. But, he only concentrates on the problems and lumps all the other children together.

[darkangel82]

because back thrn, they were for education.

[roaddog727]

Yeah, it would be too funny if it weren’t so serious.

Mr. Obama: Omnia Quae Scis Falent!

[Sir Gawain]

Aw crap there goes that logic stuff again. Where are my magic powers Soros promised me?

[metalcor]

It would be a stimulus bill for Hollywood because the demand for more DVDs would skyrocket to fill the extra time.

[Freddd]

Our students attend school more hours than the students in countries that are out performing ours. It’s not about sending more dollars, it’s not about more hours in school. It is about what is now and has been for the last 20 years, been taught and what has been left out. Longer hours simply means more hours to indoctrinate them.

Weep for your Children America, they are coming for your children.

[polymuser]

I’d think we’d want to get a higher percentage of students passing what they get now, and graduating.