Extending school year... Your views?

[Snowguy716]

Each district decides the number of days and when school starts, etc. My district was always big on sacrificing school year holidays to make summer longer.

In the 'Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul), many districts have lots of 'conference' days or a nice long spring break, so school starts the day after labor day but goes until mid June, while in my city, we had no spring break.. just one or maybe two days off for easter, but we were out around memorial weekend. (Big tourist time).

I don't think 200 days is way too many. But I think to increase to 180 or so from the current 170-175 and improve the schools from within, we'd be good to go.

There are proposals to pay teachers up to $100,000/year to teach in inner-city schools or in very poor rural districts in order to help lift these areas up. There is also a proposal to take $1bn from our "projected" budget surplus and give it all to the schools to help increase performance.

My biggest things are small class sizes and well qualified teachers (In Minnesota, one must have at least a 4 year degree and pass several strenuous certification tests before becoming a teacher). I can't stress small class sizes enough. 1st grade classrooms shouldn't have more than 15 students in them... high school (with the exception of say, Gym classes or music classes) shouldn't have more than 20. This way, each student has some individual time with the teacher.

My ideal situation for a 1st grade in an elementary school would be this.

60 students divided into 4 classes with 1 teacher per class room, plus an aide that is paid less (or student teacher for cities with colleges) to go through to each class and help during "work time"...

Also, having paraprofessionals that give special attention to children who are struggling.

It is also important to support early childhood education to give kids a head start and after school programs for families where both parents work or single parent families. This way, the mother saves money on day care and the child can be actively involved in an education environment while remaining safe.