I could hardly believe this when I read it yesterday -- from 'YourHub.com' Arvada, Wheat Ridge; Thursday, January 15, 2009 (no link found to this story):
Jeffco Public Schools budget cuts comingJefferson County School board member Sue Marinelli wasted no time Jan. 10 getting down to the nitty gritty of the state's largest school district's budget woes.
"We need to reduce our budget by $36 million over the next three years," Marinelli told an overflow crowd at Evergreen Library, 5000 County Road 73, Evergreen. ...
... One suggestion that gained favor was to cut five schools days from the school year. Teachers in the crowd said it would still meet the state-required number of hours. ...
You've really got to wonder what folks are thinking if they believe less time in class for students is a good idea. If this suggestion were adopted a person could reasonably ask if the Jeffco public schools were moving towards getting out of the teaching business altogether.
Consider this -- take the children out of school for a week as suggested above, realize that CSAP testing results in little learning for three weeks (include test-prep, pre-testing, CSAP pep rallies, etc.), count up all the early-release and student non-conduct days -- we might as well shut down the schools from Thanksgiving till New Year's Day.
There is an old joke that goes:
I wish I had been born a thousand years ago.
Why is that?
Just think of all the history I wouldn't have to learn.
The message we can derive from this jest is that there is a lot for our children to learn if they are to have a worthwhile quality life in the twenty-first century. Yet in the Jeffco school district it seems to be a rare couple of weeks that isn't interrupted by time-off from the classroom.
Of all the bad ideas to help cut money from the budget, decreasing learning time for our kids has got to be one of the worst. In fact, I would suggest the opposite. If class sizes are to rise because of teacher cut-backs, then time in the seats for students should be increased! Let so-called "in-service training' take place in the summer; at the very least make CSAP one, one hour test per subject; abolish the 'fall break'; add to the maximum number of school days (teachers and administrators are salaried, right?).
It is a tradition for kids to complain about school and proclaim their love of holidays and time off. As adults and parents, however, we know that learning is the most valuable, meaningful thing that will ever happen to them -- but they won't get that if they are not seated at a desk experiencing a teacher teaching. How much more basic can you get than that?
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