Needed: a longer school year?

Current Events, Feb 6, 1995

"American kids have one of the longest summer vacations in the world," said a Massachusetts lawmaker a few years ago. More time in school, he said, would lead to more learning. He urged his state to lengthen its public school year.

Last spring, the National Commission on Time and Learning made much the same point. "We have been asking the impossible of our students," it said. American students, it stated, are expected to learn as much as students in other nations while spending much less time in school. It said the 180-day school year should become a thing of the past. The commission said that lengthening the school year is essential if the United States is to compete with other nations in the quality of its schools.

In fact, U.S. students have a shorter school year than students in almost any other industrialized nation. The U.S. school year averages about 180 days, The British school year averages 192 days. Japanese students go to school an average of 243 days a year.

But not everyone thinks lengthening the school year is a good idea. Many students like to spend summers on projects of their own. "The summer vacation is embedded in American culture," said Prof. Michael Kirst of Stanford University. Changing it, he feels, would be "difficult politically." In addition, a longer school year would cost billions of dollars more in teacher salaries and in building upkeep.

A recent Gallup POE, however, indicated that a majority of Americans, 52 percent, now favor increasing the length of the school year.

What do you think? Would you favor lengthening the school year in order to increase your amount of learning?