Obama's Call For Longer School Year Faces Daunting Budget Realities

The AP (9/29, Matthews) reports, "President Barack Obama's call for a longer school day and year for America's kids echoes a similar call he made a year ago to little effect, illustrating just how deeply entrenched the traditional school calendar is and how little power the federal government has to change it. Education reformers have long called for US kids to log more time in the classroom so they can catch up with their peers elsewhere in the world," yet extending the school year "could cost cash-strapped state governments and local school districts billions of dollars, strip teachers of a time-honored perk of their profession, and irk officials in states that already bridle at federal intrusion into their traditional control over education."

 

The Denver Post (9/28, Meyer) reported, "President Barack Obama on Monday called for longer school years and longer school days, a concept education reformers have pushed for decades only to be rebuffed because of a lack of funding. ... In Colorado, where rural schools are already moving to four-day school weeks to save money, and future big education cuts are a certainty, the notion of paying more for a longer school year or day is a tough sell." According to the Post, Deborah Fallin, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, is quoted saying despite the calls for an extended school day, the question is "are people willing to raise taxes" to implement longer school days.

 

Strauss: Sidwell Eschews Obama Administration Emphasis On Standardized Tests. Valerie Strauss wrote in a blog for the Washington Post (9/28), "There is some irony behind President Obama's comment that his daughters could not get as fine an academic experience in a D.C. public school as they do at private Sidwell Friends School: His education policies promote some practices that Sidwell wouldn't dream of adopting." According to Strauss, "At Sidwell, a Quaker school, teachers don't spend days drilling kids to pass standardized tests, and they aren't evaluated by student test scores. .. The irony is that Obama's own education policies give standardized testing a central place in public education, though he chose a school for his children that wouldn't see that as a sound way to run an academic program."