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More Schools Go To 4-Day Week To Cut Costs
Hugh Pickens writes "As schools return to session in South Dakota, more than one-fourth of students in the state will only be in class from Monday through Thursday as budget constraints lead school districts to hack off a day from the school week. Larry Johnke, superintendant of the Irene-Wakonda school district, says the change will save his schools more than $50,000 per year. In order to make up for the missing day, schools will add 30 minutes to each of the other four days and shorten the daily lunch break. 'In this financial crisis, we wanted to maintain our core content and vocational program, so we were forced to do this,' says Johnke. Experts say research is scant on the effect of a four-day school week on student performance, but many of the 120 districts that have the shortened schedule nationwide say they've seen students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise test scores and attendance. Others say that not only did they fail to save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also saw students struggle because they weren't in class enough and didn't have enough contact with teachers."
The purpose of the public education system is to provide jobs for as many teachers and administrators as possible, to pay them as much as can be extracted at gunpoint from the taxpaying populace, and prevent them from being fired or otherwise disciplined in any meaningful fashion. Teaching the students is a secondary and sometimes optional function. The proof of this is that, if you were to deliberately design a school system to accomplish these things, it would be identical to the one we have now (h/t to Dr. Jerry Pournelle).
Reform is useless, there are too many interested parties. The solution? Sauve qui peut. Most private schools can do the job, if you have the means. If not, there's homeschooling. And the rest will serve as horrible examples to those who fail to take advantage of the first two options. It's lifeboat time, and there aren't enough seats for everyone.
> but how much extra will it cost parents who need to pay for care for younger children
Don't know, don't care. Perhaps the parents should have thought about possible costs before procreating?
lmao yes teachers get paid as much as possible (about 30k with a master's degree and certificate where i live)
Its a different wage structure than the rest of us are used to.
Yes, the first year is 30K. Any employee who survives gets a union mandated 8% annual payraise. Its all part of the game, just like they get three months vacation and "we" get about two weeks. The game is every teacher starts out of school as lower middle class wage, and retires as very much upper middle class in the low $100K area.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Killing all republicans would be a good start to just 'fix' the school system. Privatization, ignorance, and greed is what ALL of this is about, and it's sure not being spearheaded by the Democrats(they only want to steal your medically-oriented money like health insurance).
Republicans just want it all, at no cost to themselves, and without having to deal with those pesky 'poor people' they keep hearing about. $5000/semester private school? Sure, as long as there is nobody there who offends my WASP sensibilities!
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
People who don't see what "good" music and art are to a well rounded education are fucking morons like you.
If anything, dump the intramural sports crap that leads to glorifying the inbred gaptoothed moron jocks over those who have the brainpower and spend the time to excel in intellectual subjects.
"Killing all republicans would be a good start to just 'fix' the school system."
Really? That's your honest opinion?
Fuck you. Go die in a hole.