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Students with ADD will benefit from being in school all year round. If you don't use it, you lose it. Teachers also complain that they don't have enough time to get it all done. A longer year would allow time for fun activities such as gym and art.
But the biggest headache is all the paperwork a teacher has to fill out for the government. It takes valuable time away from preparing lessons. Teachers could do a better job if the government didn't force them to fill out so many forms.
Getting rid of poor teachers is only half the problem. The students need to be motivated to stay in school. For a middle-class student, the consequence is that if you drop out of school, you won't earn as much money. But if the student is on welfare, that consequence doesn't apply. They make the same amount if they drop out or not. Maybe the students would get serious about their own education if the consequence for dropping out was that they have to apply to the military before they can apply for welfare. Tell them that if they spend too much time hanging out with their friends, they'll have to kiss those friends goodbye.
VPK is a good idea, but many low-income families can't send their kids to preschool because the parent has to be at work early, there isn't a bus, and they have no way of getting the child there. The sooner the child starts their education, the better, but right now, preschool is just something the middle class can afford.

Longer school year cannot slove the problem . It could lose the valuabl time of the children .

I don't think that a longer school year will solve this problem. Ouch. I am already tired and the thought of working a longer school year is not appealing. Would we get paid more? In addition, has our pupil spending really increased in the last couple of decades? I haven't seen this increase. Have you?

I am opposed to longer school days because students would not benefit from longer hours. Also, educators' have mandates to their education as wee. I noticed students' attention span diminishes by 3:00 p.m. They want to go home!. Would longer school days effect working parents opportunities to interact with their children on a daily basis? Would all schools be mandated to pay teaching staff a equal wage?


I know some students are left at home alone, but there are other students who have parental support/or some other type of adult support when they leave school to complete their homework assignments and interact with them before their bedtime. Society demands parents work, while it also have generated working grandparents as well! So, if the school day become longer, how will it benefit the children when their educators are overtacked because of little pay, longer hours, exhausted scholars and over crowded classrooms.

Personally, I am enrolled in school working toward's a Doctrine Degree in the field of education while teaching Kindergarten scholars! I need to have some down time with comfortable pay!. I have been employed with a Charter School for the past four years and have not received an increase in pay! My loans are due and my bills are sky rocking! My husband's unemployment have stopped, and I am wondering how will we make our necessary monthly bills.

I have a large number of students on a daily basis. Yet, the CEO at my school received a large increase in his pay, but told me there wasn't any funding available for me to earn an increase. I have a Master's Degree in Elementary Education but my pay is reflective of a student teacher. For the past two years, I have educated scholars which were deemed low academic achievers, when they transitioned to the next grade level they were on or above the advance scholars. On Today, two students were transferred into my classroom from two other higher paid teachers, which have occurred every year. The CEO at my school received a large increase in his pay, but told me there wasn't any funding available for me to earn an increase. I have a Master's Degree in Elementary Education with over 20 years of Early Childhood Employment experience, but my pay is reflective of a student teacher.

Reform must begin by making CEO's accountable at Charter Schools let's start by stopping schools from being top heavy (too many administrative personnel), What does a CEO at a school do, (stop paying $125,000 to 150,000 to CEO's) $125,000 to Academic Advisors, $100,00 to principals and $80,000 to assistant principalsto some teachers who started when pay raises were being given much higher pay rates then their counter parts, others like myself getting $42,000 a year with a Master's Degree. It's like Educational Slavery!!! In order to not get frustrated by the large student population, and the number of scholars with special needs and one school assistance shared by four teacher, I focus on the fact that my scholars are counting on me to give them the tools they need to be successful in Kindergarten academically and prepare to make a smooth transition into First Grade and society! Is it unfair when some elementary teachers'receive higher pay rates with smaller class sizes then their elementary colleagues?

Let's reform education by providing smaller class sizes to scholars and educators, and giving increase in pay to all teachers with state by state pay scale which takes in account education, experience, scholars' achievement beginning in Kindergarten through twelveth grade.

Should some schools be allowed to generate a cash flow with state monies (Education payments, Title One Funding, and 32A payments) and not give any of it to students nor to teachers! Yes, make sure that pay increases are fair across the board and not just for the individuals relationships or favors!

Should Charter Schools receive state funds and not participate in state retirement plans for their staff? Or would this make them accountable for pay rates affordable for teachers' to stop living from paycheck to paycheck without a hope for a decent retirement plan for their contributions of 15 to 30 years ? :)

Thanks for your consideration!

I agree regarding year round school with more time off throughout the year enabling families to spend quality seasonal time together to rejuvenate. If we are bringing elementary schools back into neighborhoods closer to home for the children where they may feel less separated from family/security, by all means, throw more money to education. The methodology does need to change as well, allowing all children a fair shot at the education they can attain by working for it...not to be held back by others in the classroom who may need more attention whether they be special needs for physical or emotional/mental disabilities. With the free time they earn by advancing at their own pace, they can use some of that time as peer tutors and gain valuable insights into their own abilities.
Research has shown that physical movement, music and learning a second language all contribute to the development of the brain as learning increases....brain cells actually grow! Whatever happened to the President's Fitness Challenge in gym class? Free music? Language classes?
I agree also on leaving the education decisions to the educators AND parents for what is needed to encourage and support family life. There is no better education attained than in a secure, close-to-home environment where children feel comfortable, cared for and free to discover/learn. (Not spending education money on bussing/oil, etc.)
You want to throw more money into education, throw it into public libraries-our truest form of freedom in education lead by our own choices; Freedom's Last Stand!
A word on numbers and testing and tenure...don't participate in or believe these bogus measures that limit learning!

I don't believe spending billions of dollars for an extra 4 weeks of schooling will help make children brighter, smarter, more enlightened, what have you... what we need to learn is to use the time and resources we have more efficiently, with LESS testing, and MORE time devoted to changing out what doesn't work and implementing what does. This means meetings with staff, individual student awarness, nurturing the students strenghts so they can build and grow on that strength. This may mean changing the entire (main stream) structure of how we teach.

I think the ones who need more school are the polititians! Throwing money at a problem only makes things worse! I totally believe that the state tests aren't even valid criteria for those "numbers" they are touting. Fix the problem first!
In many states, illegal immigtants are over-running the system, making bi-lingual supplies and teachers a must...and letting the english speaking children slide through the cracks. I brought my grandchildren here to Wyoming because that was the scenario in central California.
If his "reform agenda" includes reducing bureaucracy, then let's let the EDUCATORS decide how to fix it, NOT the idiots in government! (ie: Colorado ranchers had protested Obama's proposed changes in grazing policies, so he ordered the Secretary of the Interior to fire half of the “cattle” guards immediately!) These people are running our country into the ground and haven't a clue what is REALLY happening - in our schools, our businesses, or our economy.

While statistics may show that children attend school for less time than in other countries, extending the school year will not help students retain the information better. Year round school may be an alternative that is worthwhile to consider. It is not that children are not in school enough, it is that the amount of time children spend out of school is not used in the best manner. As a former school teacher, the first couple months of school are used to assess where the children are and teach them what they have lost over the summer. Should students go to school on a year round basis, this time would not have to be used to reteach what was taught in the previous year, but rather expand on the concepts that the children have already mastered. Year round school would build in those essential breaks that everyone needs, both students and children, but the time off would be shorter and the breaks would be more frequent, allowing time for everyone to rejuvenate, yet moving forward with the next skill sets. Another benefit to year round school is that families would have time together at various times during the year, providing opportunities for seasonal experiences year round. Additionally, the time families would spend together could be more rewarding and less mundane, as the breaks would only be a couple of weeks at a time, rather than months of the same all at one time. ---Just a thought!

Lengthening the day or adding months to the year is like speaking louder to someone who speaks a different language and thinking that will help them comprehend your words.

"School" works for those for whom it works, and doesn't for whom it doesn't. More of the same mismatched methodology never helped anyone. It just means more suffering for those for whom their school paradigm is a nightmare and ineffective. The dollars would be better spent in retooling teacher training, and to redesigning our methodologies that reflect and implement what we know about brain-based learning... not memorization to pass state tests.

As to the comment that children lose what they learned over the summer . . . one does not 'lose' what one has 'learned'. Most of the current teaching/learning methods are geared towards short term learning, not long term. Fix the process, and it goes into long term memory.

I have never been able to understand WHO could possibly be advising our politicians. Certainly, it is not a 'master' teacher or educator who knows anything about how real learning takes place. But those testing services ... well, what a corner they've developed on a market that could be spending those dollars more effectively.

The answer is not to add to the length of the school day, but rather to increase the quality of instruction while the children are in school. Just as in any profession there are exemplary teachers and teachers who are so poor that you wonder why they chose the profession. Get rid of tenure. No job or career should be such that poor performance is rewarded with job security. Can anyone explain the justification for tenure? Good teachers do not fear being in the teaching professon without tenure. It is only the teachers who have reason to fear losing their jobs that do not want to lose the opportunity to hide behind the skirts of tenure. In fact, the good teachers cringe at the performance of some of their tenured peers, but know there is nothing that can be done to correct the poor performance.
Children need time to just be children. Schools allow little time for socialization. Children aren't allowed to talk at lunch, on the bus, in the hall and recess is becoming a thing of the past. School days have gotten longer over the years and recess has gotten shorter. At least this is the case in my community. I am for education, but children need the opportunity to socialize. Socialization is one of the most overlooked aspects of education. As we continue to chip away at the children's opportunity to socialize, the scores fall. If we continue this idea that we must input more information into our children in order to increase "scores", I believe this will be an added stress on children, thus having a negative, rather than positive affect.
If there is a problem with the "scores" and "numbers", try fixing the problem first, before adding time and money to the problem. Start by eliminating tenure. School administrators need to be in classrooms observing and they need to listen to parents. There should be a process for dealing with teachers who have multiple complaints from parents. In early childhood, we say that parents are a child's first and best teacher. We welcome and encourage family involvement. Once the child reaches school, the school district acts as if they are the experts in charge of the child, and often disregard and discourage a parents desire to be involved.
Work first on rectifying the problems before throwing more money and time at the issues involved.