South Dakota Schools Go To 4 Day Week

[MJS]

http://news.yahoo.com/south-dakota-schools-cut-costs-4-day-week-171700903.html

IRENE, S.D. (AP) — When the nearly 300 students of the Irene-Wakonda School District returned to school this week, they found a lot of old friends, teachers and familiar routines awaiting them. But one thing was missing: Friday classes.
This district in the rolling farmland of southeastern South Dakota is among the latest to adopt a four-day school week as the best option for reducing costs and dealing with state budget cuts to education.
"It got down to monetary reasons more than anything else," Superintendent Larry Johnke said. The $50,000 savings will preserve a vocational education program that otherwise would have been scrapped.
The four-school week is an increasingly visible example of the impact of state budget problems on rural education. This fall, fully one-fourth of South Dakota's districts will have moved to some form of the abbreviated schedule. Only Colorado and Wyoming have a larger proportion of schools using a shortened week. According to one study, more than 120 school districts in 20 states, most in the west, now use four-day weeks.

Thoughts?

 

[JohnEdward]

Certainly breaks with tradition.
It is sad that we are at that point in our economy.
Does that mean the kids in the future will expect a 4 day work week?
How happy are the teachers to lose a day of pay- why not make all the richest businessmen, entertainers, athletes, congressmen, lobbyist give a proportional amount of their salary and that of a teacher's loss of pay for a day and donate to teachers in schools with 4 days. Since teachers did help them get successful.
The kids, daycare and other paid after school programs are just delighted.

 

[Big Don]

When I was a kid, I would have loved this. I see the practical side of it, but, South Dakota's entire population is less than 800,000, what works there, may not work in CA.

 

[JohnEdward]

Opps

 

[granfire]

well, if both parents work they will have to cough up an extra day of child care...
Nice...
Plus...
what happens to content of that 5th day?

Having grown up with 6 school days, only the 2nd Saturday of the month was off...I wonder how they are gonna keep up with the curriculum....

(naturally, when money gets tight we cut education...sheesh)

 

[Makalakumu]

When I was a kid, I would have loved this.

It would have left me with more time to hunt and fish.

 

[sfs982000]

As a kid I would've loved the 3 day weekend, but as an adult and parent now I would be ticked off for one having to pay an extra day of child care and two, I think that cutting the 5th day out they will ultimately lack something in thier education that would've been able to have been covered during a full school week. As it stands going to a 4 day school week, the teachers will have to cram more on the children and expect more of them with less, but then again I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Doing more with less has become the Amercian way.

 

[Big Don]

Maybe they'll cut all the social indoctrination, that would save time and money...

 

[cdunn]

At least one wing of the tea party has publically admitted that they want public education to go away. Here in PA and NJ, they're pushing to do it through charters and vouchers. Maybe out there, they're just taking a different route. Better to make serfs for our plutocratic overlords.

 

[granfire]

Maybe they'll cut all the social indoctrination, that would save time and money...

you mean how Christians are always persecuted, and that 'just say no' works for everything?
:lol:

 

[HammockRider]

Let's see, we've slipped behind the rest of the Industrialized World in education, and we're going to catch up by going to school less? :mst:

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Let's see, we've slipped behind the rest of the Industrialized World in education, and we're going to catch up by going to school less? :mst:

I'd rather a 4-day school week that was better tailored for education than the status quo, but sadly, that was not the reason for the reduction.

 

[Big Don]

you mean how Christians are always persecuted, and that 'just say no' works for everything?
:lol:

Well, for instance, in CA, Gov Brown just signed into law SB48, requiring schools to teach not just the deeds of historical figures, but, their sexual preference as well. What the hell happened to Reading and Writing and Arithmetic? Touchy feely is fine, but, it isn't education.

 

[HammockRider]

Well, for instance, in CA, Gov Brown just signed into law SB48, requiring schools to teach not just the deeds of historical figures, but, their sexual preference as well. What the hell happened to Reading and Writing and Arithmetic? Touchy feely is fine, but, it isn't education.

Oh my God, don't get me started. I was talking to a family member who is a teacher and she told me that there are some school districts that use a "newer" version of The Great Gatsby. It was re-written to reflect the lower reading level of many of today's high school students!

 

[Big Don]

Oh my God, don't get me started. I was talking to a family member who is a teacher and she told me that there are some school districts that use a "newer" version of The Great Gatsby. It was re-written to reflect the lower reading level of many of today's high school students!

Maybe if there wasn't such an emphasis placed on race, religion and sexual preference, teachers would have the time to teach kids to read and write.

 

[granfire]

Well, for instance, in CA, Gov Brown just signed into law SB48, requiring schools to teach not just the deeds of historical figures, but, their sexual preference as well. What the hell happened to Reading and Writing and Arithmetic? Touchy feely is fine, but, it isn't education.

hmmm
with the exception of Oscar Wilde, I do not recall a single person in history who's preference was relevant for their historic actions....
Besides, much of it is conjecture, nothing you can proof, one way or another.

 

[granfire]

Oh my God, don't get me started. I was talking to a family member who is a teacher and she told me that there are some school districts that use a "newer" version of The Great Gatsby. It was re-written to reflect the lower reading level of many of today's high school students!

Falls inline with the rewritten Huck Finn...if we try hard enough, we can erase the use of the N word from history...but then what is Al Sharpton going to do for attention?!

 

[MJS]

IMO, I say keep it the way it is now...5 days a week. I suppose time will tell, but I'm really not seeing how its reducing the failure rate, which someone in the article already mentioned, and as for the money saved....is it really that big of a difference vs if they stayed for 5 days? According tot he article:

"Wayne Lueders, the recently retired director of the Associated School Boards, said a four-day school week won't actually save much because schools still must pay salaries and benefits, "but every dollar counts in this current situation."
Schools can save on busing, food and other operations."

IMO, its not saving but instead, its basically a wash...they're breaking even, with nothing gained. Also, this doesnt make sense:

"In Deuel, a 500-student district that shortened its week four years ago, Superintendent Dean Christensen said as much as $100,000 a year has been saved and the failure rate has declined, which he attributed to more time for tutoring and teacher training."

So, you cut a day, but then this allows for more time for tutoring? If the 5th day were still there, would the failure rate be that high? I'm sure the teachers aren't tutoring for free. Thus the reason why I dont see the savings as being as high as they're making it out to be.

 

[granfire]

I suppose tutoring comes out of the parents' pockets...