Washington state trying to adopt 4 day school week. (daycare, felons)

[70Ford]

I've seen this before... in the PI.
Four-day school week proposed

Saw it again on MSNBC today..
4-day school week gains momentum - Education- msnbc.com

Hrmmm...my wife is a home maker. Unlike a lot of other people's wives, I'm sure. Man....early Wednesdays and now a day off!
I guess it's good that people in Washington can afford a day of child care or can take a day off of work or something.

I see it as being a bad thing, because I like saving money. My wife has her own schedule of things she enjoys doing while the kids are in school. How do you see it? I bet the kids love it!

[Sandy Nelson]

I think the idea has no merit whatsoever. What this country needs is better educated children, and more rigorous schooling, not less.
If it were up to me summer vacations would only be 6 weeks instead of 10 weeks. If it were up to me we'd have schools of choice with a voucher system.

[restam]

From a financial status of the schools it makes perfect sense. Utilities don't have to run an additional day, busses don't need to run, etc. From a family status it depends. Would you prefer to have your kid in school 5 days a week and frequently taught by incompetent substitutes or would you prefer to have your kids in school 4 days a week with their primary teacher?

Some of the rural school districts in Colorado do have 4 day weeks and they have noticed less absenteeism of both staff and students.

[tindo80]

It saves on gas (people not making as many trips back and forth a week), energy consumption, pollution, and saves the state money in the budget (considering how broke the states are, thats a big deal). This seems like a great idea. I think the 4 day workweek is great for all labor in general.


My guess is once gas starts to rise again, other state agencies, probably the fed and corporations will follow state governments in implementing the 4 day week. Utah did it like 2 years ago, and they are showing increased moral, less absenteeism, and moderate state savings on the budget.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by tindo80

It saves on gas (people not making as many trips back and forth a week), energy consumption, pollution, and saves the state money in the budget (considering how broke the states are, that's a big deal). This seems like a great idea. I think the 4 day workweek is great for all labor in general.

I am in this camp, I think if done properly, a 4 day work / school week would be an economic / energy saving / family building stimulus

But strictly for education we have a significant need to 're-invent' that process, and I mean RADICALLY. (Hint... it is not working). As a returning college student (after 30+yr in industry), there is a major lack of preparedness on incoming students. This has been validated in many ways, including one of my projects of interviewing higher ed leaders in WA and OR.

Don't have specifics in mind, but I recognize only 4-5 hr of class time is instructional, so... we could do like some SUCCESSFUL countries and have each teacher / school classroom / buses handle 2x the students - 8-noon, and second shift 1-5pm. In the 'off-hours any students older than age 12 who are not living at a 'dairy-farm-boarding-school' would be REQUIRED to learn a revenue generating skill or perfect a career bound art. (performance, visual arts). Similar to an apprenticeship. I did both (dairy farm and apprenticeship + school and college) It was good discipline and equipped me with several career options by age 25. With so many students graduating college and having ZERO experience or exposure to their field, it is not surprise the USA has a 75% attrition rate from chosen careers / majors. That is a lot of wasted time and $$ and doesn't say much for our national education or economic strategy.

[j_k_k]

I'm opposed to it, not because it will deny mommy and daddy their ever-so-handy state-sponsored daycare, but because it means worse education. That means increasing ignorance, which in turn means people who grow up incapable of understanding complex issues, which means more-easily-manipulated morons a generation later. We already have enough easily manipulated morons without increasing the number. The only benefit to cutting education is that it should help run off residency thieves in time, because less education means more people with no marketable intellect or skills beyond those required to pick fricking asparagus.

[70Ford]

Originally Posted by j_k_k

I'm opposed to it, not because it will deny mommy and daddy their ever-so-handy state-sponsored daycare, but because it means worse education. That means increasing ignorance, which in turn means people who grow up incapable of understanding complex issues, which means more-easily-manipulated morons a generation later. We already have enough easily manipulated morons without increasing the number. The only benefit to cutting education is that it should help run off residency thieves in time, because less education means more people with no marketable intellect or skills beyond those required to pick fricking asparagus.

Why do you think it would mean a worse education?

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by 70Ford

Why do you think it would mean a worse education?

Because if they cram the same amount of hours into less days, that means attention spans fade further, followed by more days completely away from education. And because at this point, I think most of the decisionmaking in public education is so terrible that I have little faith in the wisdom behind any policy change. Instead of believing by default that the decisions are made by basically sensible people, I believe that they are not, and the burden of proof shifts to them to convince me otherwise. I've seen too much deterioration in my adult life to have any optimism. So, by default, until someone proves otherwise, I think this is more likely to make education worse than better.

I feel badly for the kids. When I was ten and being paddled in school, it did not occur to me at that time that I was having a far more wholesome school experience than the next generation would. I should have appreciated what we had a lot more while I was lucky enough to have it, and hardly a day goes by I don't rejoice that I had the foresight and discipline to be childless.

[rkcarguy]

The state is cutting funds in the wrong places and that's one of the places they have cut alot.
That political ad with the Govenor sitting in the classroom with all the children was complete BS.
It wasn't long after her re-election that we're hearing news of more teacher layoff's, school closure talk, and her possible repeal of a voter approved funding increase for more teachers, staff, and supplies, and freezing any pay increases until 2011.
I used to think that teachers had it easy, but after seeing my wife bust her butt nearly 12 hours a day, in an open door school school district full of felons and druggies, with about 1/2 the supplies they needed....then get layed off....when you're already making 2/3rd's the average wages for your education level.....
She's now retraining for a different profession.
I feel bad for the kids too..because they are on the bottom of the totem pole in this state.

[tindo80]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

The state is cutting funds in the wrong places and that's one of the places they have cut alot.
That political ad with the Govenor sitting in the classroom with all the children was complete BS.
It wasn't long after her re-election that we're hearing news of more teacher layoff's, school closure talk, and her possible repeal of a voter approved funding increase for more teachers, staff, and supplies, and freezing any pay increases until 2011.
I used to think that teachers had it easy, but after seeing my wife bust her butt nearly 12 hours a day, in an open door school school district full of felons and druggies, with about 1/2 the supplies they needed....then get layed off....when you're already making 2/3rd's the average wages for your education level.....
She's now retraining for a different profession.
I feel bad for the kids too..because they are on the bottom of the totem pole in this state.

Ive heard WA kids are among the top of the nation as far as k-12 goes. I grew up in Texas...which has ranked from 42-50 for the last 10 years (and was probably worst when I was attending).

I hate to see states cut education spending, but at the same time, maybe a 4 day system would be a sort of solution to this. Keep the schools open maybe 1 1/2 hours more every day and 1 day less a week. That would save on paying utilities for the school.