How do you feel about this? A longer school year?

I don't see why the kids can't have a longer school year. many areas allow for optional "all year" school terms. They just have longer breaks during the holidays. And in reality the summer break was ment for the kids to help their families with raising crops and with the harvest of the crops. I don't know about you but we live in a suburb area so really there's not much harvesting to do but from ones own garden. Plus, during that 3 mo's off my brain always went into a pile of mush & forgot alot of the ciriculum i learned the previous school.

No. I know some parents are in favor of year round school or longer school years but I am not. School, the traditional way, is a lot of meaningless busywork for our kids. Learning does not have to always be within the confines of school and doesn't have to include worksheets, books, or homework. The way the economic crunch is going, I would be in favor of a shorter school year actually. I don't think that forcing kids to go to school for more hours a day or more days a year would be beneficial at all. There is only so much a person can learn and grasp in a certain period of time, and again that is also dependent on their learning style and intelligence. Our children are NOT small adults. School should not be the same as a JOB.

I think we should really make an investment in our children. A democracy only works well if the citizenship is well educated and can make rational and logical decisions. I see education in our youth as an investment in America. I do not like hearing about how we are falling behind in this area or that. I feel we should want to do right by the next generation and give to them the tools they need to make good use of their life.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand I wouldn't mind the kids having a longer school year, and honestly I don't think my kids would either because they get pretty bored when there's no school. But I know when I was in school I would have hated to have to miss school during the warm weather! My question is, do they have the finances to do this? Do they have the resources? All they ever talk about is making cut backs, how are they going to afford longer school years, which means paying more electricity, paying teachers more, etc etc. It will probably end up hiking our taxes. I just don't know.

I really don't think a longer school year would do anything at all. I think that what teachers really need to do is try and limit the homework that they are dolling out. Instead of being able to ask questions on things my step son comes home does his 2-3 hours of home work and he is only in 5th grade. What they really need to get the education system better is one more money for education and two more teachers there just aren't enough teachers out there to make class rooms smaller to help students. I mean right now in California most class rooms (in a public school) are any where from 25-40 students how in the heck will a teacher be able to give each student the needed time for them to really learn. Not to mention that most have to give out so much homework. Its like an adult working to much we end up getting depressed and negative because we do it so often i would hate our children getting depressed cause it seems like all they do is school.

I think that it could binifit children, an education never hurt any one. The problem is that the federal government is not the ones fitting the bill for the education of our children. And many school districts are having the same financial difficulties as the other sectors of business. If schools get any of the money they are being promised most of them need it just to get on an even playing field with districts that have more money. In Texas the federal government pays for less than 5% of public education. I was shown this in an education class I am taking. Most all of our funding is from locl property tax. I do not know about other states except to say that the majority of funding is not federal. The United States federal government has very little say in public education. That is why No Child Left Behind is such a big deal. I am not going to complain about how much teachers get paid now but I will point out that where I am at the school year is 180 working days, and if it is extended then tax payers are going to have to cough up more money for the bills incured.

I seriously think that kids now days have so much stuff crammed into them that they need this break and they are already seems they are making kindergarten kids do more work and are doing work that first and second graders used to do and same goes for the other kids so instead of doing work like I did they are getting a higher education by having to do work that used to be meant for higher grades I feel they shouldn't make the year longer for them..

i have heard that some places carry on the school year during the summer, but here in ontario (canada) the schools are not equipped to go through the summer. but they are talking about the school year starting before labour day.

I think that lower class numbers would give children more chance to succeed. I am a primary school teacher and know that with 20 children in a class they achieve a great deal in an academic year. However if there are 30 children in a class not all will achieve very much. The teacher will differentiate work that is suitable for the more able, the average, the less able and cater for the special needs. I think that lessons need to be interesting and children need to be made to feel valued. The government of my home country give older teenagers an educational maintenance of £30 a week to keep them in education. My older son is 13 years old and he brings home certificates a lot of the time. The school has helped his self esteem. Children and teenagers would resent a longer school year. When I was teaching full time I needed the summer break to recharge. I had to do planning and marking work in the Christmas and Easter Holidays. America should perhaps try to keep its teachers and employ a few more.

I think that longer school years could benefit the students, but I am not sure it is entirely possible. While we cannot afford for US children to go down in the rankings anymore I don't know that the US can afford such a plan.

While I agree that we need to maintain an advantage when it comes to education, I do not think a longer school year is the answer. Children already spend a large ammount of time in school. I think that the summer is necessary to give them a break from school. Educational activtities can be continued over the summer, but I do not think a longer school year is the correct measure to take. I think the time off can also help children to develop and practice other skills such as sports and arts. These skills will also help them in the future. I think it is important to prepare children for the global future, but I do not think that a longer school year is the correct way to acheive that preparation.

I do not believe that the proposed longer school year is the right way to go about it. I have come across a few American kids who seriously lag behind their counterparts from my country, especially in Mathematics. The solution lies in improving the course structure in all the schools across the U.S. rather than extending the period spent at school.

I definately support lengthening our school year. We are the only country since education began as public and formalized that haven't changed our school year in length or hours. Every other country has. We have though extended the course load. How on earth do parents expect us to get through "quality" if they don't allow us the time? It's not that we'd have to extend it by that long either. One more hour per day, a bit longer during the year and we'd see an drastic increase in our scores as compared to other nations. And I'm not so sure why parents are against year round schooling. We work year round do we not? It's not like students would not be given vacation, but the number of kids that end up latch key during the summer because parents are working is insane. This is something positive. Anora

I don't think that a longer school year would benefit the kids more. They should worry more about the quality and not the quantity of education they give these kids. I have my own ideas on what I believe could be an ideal education but they are beliefs written by person (Charlotte Mason) that was teaching over 100 years ago that would still work today.

Maybe they should get rid of the extra-curricular activities and get the children to do their school work and as well get rid of the bad teachers. Also they should pay the good teachers more. Stimulus money will do no good if the same medicore teachers remain in the schools and besides is not your children, grand children and great grandchildren going to pay for the stimulus? Maybe cutting taxes would be a better idea.