I agree whole heartedly.  I also support year round school.  They kids have shorter breaks in which to get bored and loose skills, but they still get breaks.  It would have to be that all kids in a family are on the same schedual, but other than that I don't see any reason for it not being worthwhile.

teamquinn Sep. 29, 2009 at 1:06 PM

Until we fix our schools this won't solve the problem.

BUT until parents (obviously not all parents but some) stop assuming that educating their child is solely the schools responsibility, the idea of more school, even year round school, might be a decent idea.

aurorabunny Sep. 29, 2009 at 4:37 PM

I think Obama wants to turn us into a socialist country with him as dictator.

knitter2000 Sep. 29, 2009 at 4:39 PM

Knitter2000, I'm confused. I understand if you think longer school days and less vacations aren't a good way to fix schools, but what is the connection between extra school time, higher test scores, and socialism?

Cafe Kim Sep. 29, 2009 at 4:50 PM

So...do you actually have anything topical to contribute to this conversation Knitter?  Genuinely asking, not trying to be mean but when you come in spouting propaganda and buzz phrases that have nothing to do with article it makes me wonder if you do, or if you even read it.

aurorabunny Sep. 29, 2009 at 5:04 PM

Okay, so they are in school longer hours.  Does that mean teachers get raises, parents get some kind of after school care tax write off or assistance, schools get more money to actually implement more programs EQUALLY across the board and statewide as opposed to the common problems now where they seem to be losing more and more money which means having to cut more and more programs. 

I live in Chicago, where the problem of a having a "safe place" is an oxmoron when you have kids engaging in brutal street brawls, AFTER SCHOOL and off school grounds.  At what point a "safe place" really come into play here.  Now higher scores, maybe, but that will take more than longer school hours, when you can't even get decent pay for decent teachers.  Will they also start paying the teacher the big bucks, because if I was a teacher and I potentially had to parent your child for an additional 2-3 months, I'd sure as hell be expecting a huge pay increase.  It would be categorized as "hazard pay", because based off some of the stories some of these teachers have they are going into combat zones on a daily basis.  But I digress.  I see major flaws in this, and view this as another band-aid for another broken system.

sicsty8teens Sep. 29, 2009 at 5:10 PM

I'd rather not have the extra hours and just make the ones they have used better. What is the point of showing my 2nd grader a "Land Before Time" movie in school hours? Yes, this just happened 2 weeks ago. And all of the random days off so that the kids get a lot of 3 day weeks need to go away too. I don't really have an issue with year round school, but why not make the days the have better?

littleredpony Sep. 29, 2009 at 8:30 PM

The schools around my area do the following things during school hours:

Take kids to the ice cream parlor.

Take kids to see Disney movies.

Take kids to the park to play, NOT during recess. 

Do weekly birthday parties. 

I'm not sure if longer hours would actually equal better educated kids.  Seems like longer hours would equal federally funded daycare.

mancosmomma Sep. 30, 2009 at 7:15 PM

Mancosmomma, are you SERIOUS?  Gah.

That's exactly why I said above that nothing is going to change until our schools get a total overhaul.

aurorabunny Sep. 30, 2009 at 10:28 PM

 They have changed so many thing for our kids in school to make it "better".  Staying longer will not help.  I have 5 kids 4 are in school and the sad part by the time homework is finished it is past 9 the oldest is in 6th.  They need to put real expectations for our kids.  I have heard my third grader come home 5 times in 7 weeks to tell me that they had a fight in her class.  How would this fix problems like this?  This will not make our kids smarter at all.  Look how tired they get now and they have more then enough days. What would change our kids means to learn longer it hard enough for the 10 months we go.  Make them go longer and  more may fail.  My child does not know what page in her math book they worked in she has been in school for 7 weeks.  Some teachers are sending home the work and letting the parents teach.  So how are we going to pay the teachers longer.  Every so called tax we pay suppose to be for teachers only makes it way after it is passed some place else.  More pay to bus drivers, gas so on this will not help at all.  Vacations will go way down my hubby works with 5 other men they all can not pick the same week.        

laralizbeth81 Sep. 30, 2009 at 11:46 PM