A Four Day School Week? (updated)

As a retired teacher I say the simplest simplest solution to save $65,000 a year would be to fire one educrat at the central office bureaucracy. I am certain the didtrict has several who are earning at least 100 grand a year.
By ridding itself of an educrat kids would still have school five days a week but we all know our fearless eduweenies have first claim on tax funds. They make the buget. Students, education and teacher's be damned. Bureaucracy must not be impeded.
Our eduweenies hate home schooling and are trying to stop it because home schooled kids perform far better on any academic measurement given to those who attend regular schools both public and private. Maybe the taxpayers in this Minnesota district needs to fire their educrats and shut down the entire system and go to homeschooling five days a week with the teachers as assistants to parents and computers.

I can see a 4-day school week being a real pain in the neck for parents who both work 5 days a week...

Why not keep all those Mondays and shorten the school year by a few weeks. Money would still be saved. I would rather have a longer summer break than Mondays off.

My suspiscion is that this was not though through and the unions had too much to do with choosing the day as educators (Though that actualy educate, rare though they are).
Monday or Friday benifits the teachers more than the students. Students don't care what day is 'vacation' but the staff certainly does. Based on that alone, I consider this '4 day week' to have nothing to do with the education.
Wanderer has it right as educrats are costing this and other districts too much money for little return.

Incredible that in an age in which we mostly agree that kids need more education than less, people are seriously considering cutting classroom hours on the hope that "distance learning" will fill the gap.

How about providing school vouchers to the parents and let them support the model they think provides the best results for their kids?

Given that the feminist agenda foisted off on this country almost requires that both parents work, I don't see widespread accetance of this unless employers also opt for a matching four-day week. Either parents will rebel against having to pay outrageous taxes PLUS pay for day care one day per week, or municipalities will decide the cost of vandalism and other crimes far outweighs the paltry fuel savings. In either case, I expect the five-day school week to return, if not actually remain.

That said, is anyone else basking in the glow of realizing that the "Women must work outside the home" claptrap the NEA and its minions have shoved down the throats of three generations will be the force that prevents them from achieving the enviable scenario of 'work four, get paid for five'...?

Translation for the Education majors out there who got confused by the big words: It's your own damned fault, and we're all laughing at you!

Geoff,

I agree 100% with your idea to allow students and parents to choose where to spend their education dollars, especially if that choice is balanced by school's ability to refuse "service" to a student based on behavior.

As a public high school teacher I can see the short sightedness to this logic. SAVING MONEY.

The Educrats in their ivory towers have no idea how hard it is to regenerate learning after a 3 day weekend. Imagine the time lost when this starts happening every week.

You go fla chuck I couldn't have said it better. Will the rest of the people wake up?

Teachers these days care for nothing more than their paychecks, as long as they don't have to earn them by being productive in the classroom. Like the saying goes, "If you can't perform, then teach". God help our country, the Dimocrats and the NEA have killed the education of our children. We will never be free of the Dimocrats and the NEA from ruining our childrens lives. Most teachers I know are morons when it comes to real life.... but then they aren't there to really teach but to make money for theselves with no repercussions when they are complete failures. They would never make it in the business world.

Teachers these days care for nothing more than their paychecks, as long as they don't have to earn them by being productive in the classroom. Like the saying goes, "If you can't perform, then teach". God help our country, the Dimocrats and the NEA have killed the education of our children. We will never be free of the Dimocrats and the NEA from ruining our childrens lives. Most teachers I know are morons when it comes to real life.... but then they aren't there to really teach but to make money for theselves with no repercussions when they are complete failures. They would never make it in the business world.

Parents in this state are pretty used to working around the various in service or teacher workdays. And the teachers refuse to have these on Friday afternoons. Not sure why but I was told by one that they couldn't be creative in collaborative planning sessions Friday afternoons because they were too tired. I said that if they couldn't handle meeting with their peers without kids on Friday afternoons during regular work hours, maybe I should pick up my kid at noon on Friday. We were lucky. Great teachers thru 5th grade, but now we're homeschooling. Don't mean to rip on teachers in general - half my family are public school teachers. The expensive bureaucrats are the ones that should be cut back when things get tight.

A 4 day school week is not a bad idea. I personally would opt for Friday to be the day off instead of Monday. Monday is the day that all mueseums and cultural places close. As an added bonus Fri. is a holy day (or Fri evening which is early in winter) for some religions. It could also be used for sport and other ex-cur. activities with less guilt. But if this is idea is only shoved through on the basis of saving money, they are doing it for the wrong reasons. They could buy out older teachers (to retire) and put in newer (less costly as less experience) teachers. They could re-organize their structures.
I agree with school choice (vouchers) as the best method for cost control, but the above reasons could be good for four day weeks.

This is a great Idea, Once again here we go, give the kids a day off!! So what will the parents do? abandon the kids so we can pay the bills or take days off to watch them? This give a whole 10 hrs to kids to get into unsupervised trouble, while putting a larger burden on the parents.
What happen to the days where parents could make a dollar and not worry about if your kids were in school or not?
Public wants a better watch on kids but we give our kids a day off to save money. IT MIGHT SAVE THE SCHOOL MONEY_ BUT NOT THE COMMUNITY.

Dumbest...comment thread....ever.

TomS: "Monday or Friday benifits the teachers more than the students."

What day would you suggest instead? You don't think some parents would prefer the flexibility of a three-day weekend? It makes sense to have the off-day be Monday or Friday; thinking otherwise is just stupid.

Geoff: "people are seriously considering cutting classroom hours"

You're not thinking this through very far. In a high school with 6 50 minute periods you've got 300 minutes/5 hours of instructional time; if you add 75 minutes to each of the other days, you've made up all the "cut" instruction.

fla chuck: Linking the NEA and contemporary feminism is cute, and it might give you a nice big conservative hard-on, but it's also a line of crap that I'd bet money you can't back up.

Rick Johnson: "As a public high school teacher I can see the short sightedness to this logic. .. The Educrats in their ivory towers have no idea how hard it is to regenerate learning after a 3 day weekend."

Or, alternately, you're not a very good teacher. I could see your point if we were talking about Christmas break, but 3 days? Get some new teaching strategies.

Reflexive "I hate schools and unions!" thinking makes you part of the problem, not the solution. Congratulations on helping to tear down America, all!