NCLB - School May Be Shortened To 4 Days

[liberal N proud]

ELYRIA, Ohio -- Students in Elyria City Schools may become the first in the state to attend classes only four days a week.

A shorter school week could enable the district to park its buses on one day, saving $650,000 a year.

The idea is part of a plan to trim $6 million from next year’s budget.

The superintendent said a shorter week would mean longer days.

http://www.newsnet5.com/education/3968778/detail.html

Now we will just work the kids 10 hours for 4 days in schools and expect them to pass the standardized test and get homework done.
This is how bush plans on funding No Child Left Behind.
Elyria school district is full of minority children about 30 miles west of Cleveland.

[MatrixEscape]

1. Think of the

financial impact on working parents who may have to have some alternative for that day their kids are not in school?

[RC]

2. Yeah, but,,, but,,, but,,,,

Couldn't the maid just come in a little earlier and watch the kids?

[MichiganVote]

4. Schools make for lousy day care

You see public education was invented for education. But that wasn't good enough. People wanted kids fed when their parents didn't get their asses out of bed to feed them in the morning or blew their money on booze and cigarettes. So we fed kids in the morning, then we fed them lunch. And in the summer, we feed them then too.

Then, people wanted children to have somewhere to go before and after school, so after school programs were initiated. Special education became important to those who had disabled kids, so schools provide skill building to even the most deficient until age 26. And those programs provide links to assist those who can work to attain employment. So what if its not paid for by the Federal Government that has promised to pay (and hasn't) for the last thirty years. Whatever isn't paid comes out of the district general fund leaving schools floundering in decrepit buildings.

Updated curriculums and professional development for staff to assist students to improve is tossed out in favor of the costs of testing required by NCLB. Sex education? Sure, they said, the schools will do it. Religion? Values curriculum? Give it to the schools. Social services in the schools? Absolutely, tell the schools to do it.

For anyone who has worked in education and cares about children learning, these developments come as no surprise. The schools in the country have been spoon feeding the parents of children with everything but overnight stays.

[iconoclastic cat]

6. Damn right.

I'm glad to hear someone echo something that I have noticed with a bit too much clarity of late. "Raise our kids, 'cause we shouldn't have to!" they say.

I'm a teacher. For now. I want out. Soon.

[MichiganVote]

11. I hear ya and yes I too "slave" in the schools

[lapislzi]

14. Am I on DU??

I got confused for a minute.

Public schooling is a cornerstone of the progressive, populist ideology. That the cheap labor conservatives want to starve it to death should come as no surprise.

It always saddens me to hear of teachers burning out. My SO has hung in there lo these 25 years. Most of the time it sucks, as does most good work.

Left turn:

One of the problems we encounter consistently (that seems to filter on down from who knows where) is that suddenly the schools are teaching subjects like "character education" (I kid you not) and parents are expected to sit down with the kids and do the math sheets.

Now wait a damn minute. Aside from the fact that I HATE math, I thought that was the school's job to teach. I thought my job as a parent was to do the character and values stuff. Did I miss something? Did I not get the memo? Why is the school lecturing my kid about "values" and "respect for others" and sending the math shit home for me to teach?

Of course it is a waste of everyone's time and tax dollars. That's just the point. Starve the beast, starve the beast.

[whalerider55]

3. i thought

the reason was to allow the kids a day for religious education. i musta misread the fineprint on the law...

whalerider55

[Old and In the Way]

5. Think how much they could save by shutting down the schools?

Unbelievable.....

[iconoclastic cat]

7. You want to hear something awful? I think that we should.

Teachers should quit en masse. General strike. Forever.

[fnottr]

8. Then what?n/t

[iconoclastic cat]

9. Total societal breakdown, maybe? I don't know.

I'm just too pissed off in general to give a damn. Don't try to get any sort of logical argument from me tonight.

[shanti]

12. don't give them any ideas....

in some countries, compulsory education ends at age 12.

[AgadorSparticus]

10. Now why am I not surprised it is in a county full of minorities??

this is too much.....

[welshTerrier2]

13. quit complaining ... this is a GREAT idea ...

you obviously have no grasp whatsoever of the NCLB program ...

we cannot continue to have the poorest students falling further and further behind ...

look at it this way, each day school is in session, the "good" students gain more ground on the "poor" students ... so it logically follows that the more days of school provided, the further behind the poorest students will become ...

now that i think of it, a real NCLB program would eliminate public education all together ... it follows that no child would be left behind if all our kids IS learning nothing at all ...

[noshenanigans]

15. Maybe with the day off the kids could work at Wal-Mart

How long until corporate donors are going to be the main funding of "public" schools? Make sure you go to the game friday, The Microsoft High Firewalls are playing The Halliburton High Oilers.