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In 120 school districts across the country, kids always have a three-day weekend. As a means to balance increasingly tight budgets, some school districts are moving to a four day school week.
One of those districts is Peach County Schools in Georgia. Faced with laying off 39 teachers last year, the 4,000 student district chose instead to close down schools one day a week, cutting over $400,000 from their budget. And it paid of in more ways than one.
Kids came to school more often, as did their teachers, cutting the substitute teacher budget by two thirds. Test scores rose, and the graduation rate will reach 80 percent for the first time in years, say district officials. Working parents in Peach County were able to send their kids to an inexpensive “Monday care” program sponsored by the local Boys and Girls club.
It’s working for Peach County, but can four day school weeks really have a positive impact on learning?
As budget cuts force school districts around the country to juggle financial priorities, parents are stepping up to fill in the gaps. But where bake sales and silent auctions used to be standard practice for raising cash for field trips and other non-essentials, fund raising these days has become something else entirely. Instead of pitching in for extras, some parents are being asked to dig even deeper and help pay for the most basic of school-related expenses. Like teacher salaries and program costs. Continue reading »
It used to be that all kids needed when they headed off to school was a few pencils, some paper and a readiness to learn. But these days, with school budgets stretched to their limits, parents are often asked to pick up the tab for a lot more than basic classroom supplies. In fact, at a school in Ireland, parents are being asked to provide something that hardly qualifies as a school supply at all: Toilet paper. Continue reading »
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