Da Mayor wants longer school year, days

Mayor Richard Daley has called for longer school years and longer school days:

(AP) CHICAGO Mayor Richard Daley says he believes Chicago Public Schools students get too much time off.

He says he will push for a six-day school week, a shorter summer break or a longer school day.

Daley made the remarks yesterday when talking to parents at an education conference.

Daley says students also need earlier exposure to foreign languages if the United States is going to compete in the global marketplace.

The mayor says he was inspired to think about the issues while on a trip to China. Chinese students, he says, learn English early in their school career, don’t have a summer break and spend more days in school each week than American children.

No word on how he plans to pay for this.

I actually think that lengthening the school year and making some form of schooling year-round is a pretty good idea. I doubt, however, that the teachers’ unions would think much of the plan without a substantial increase in pay. Not to mention custodians’ unions, electricians’ unions, and others of the dozens of different kinds of employees that make the school system function. So, where would the money come from?

The State of Illinois’s contribution to public schools is one of the lowest among all of the states—46th or 47th, I think. There’s absolutely no enthusiasm in the state legislature for contributing more to Chicago schools. Some of the opposition comes from the largely wrong idea that Chicago doesn’t contribute enough to the state coffers as things already stand. Some comes from the huge amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in the enormously administration-heavy Chicago Public Schools.

The city sales tax in the City of Chicago already stands at 9%—high enough that it’s driving retail trade into the suburbs. I don’t believe the city has the power to levy an income tax or a city earnings tax.

That leaves higher property taxes. Property taxes in the City of Chicago are fairly high already and the city is benefitting from the rise in property values. Real estate isn’t booming here as it is on the coasts but house prices are going up nonetheless.

So, where will the money come from?

13 comments… add one
  • I’m a bit amused when I hear calls for more school time. For at least a couple of decades we’ve heard “experts” tell us that for the children of working and/or divorced parents, it’s the quality of the time they spend together, not the quantity that’s important. How is school that different?

    I’m not opposed to longer school years but if the only change is to add more classes and more class time, I don’t know how much improvement one could expect. Without curricula changes and stricter standards for teacher competency, the only thing that I can see having a dramatic increase with more school time would be absenteeism.

  • A 6-day school week? What is he on?

  • I think the pendulum is swinging on “quality time”, Marybeth. The reason that I think a longer school year is probably a good idea is that students tend to lose over the summer some of what they gained during the school year. The reason that I think the longer school day is a poor idea is that I don’t think that it’s good child development. Little kids, particularly, aren’t ready for that level of structure for that length of time. And shouldn’t be.

    And, as Jeff points out, a six day school week is nuts.

  • Anything that would lessen the amount of time spent at the beginning of the school year reviewing what the students were supposed to have learned the previous year would be a good thing.

  • A completely non-serious proposal on Daley’s part. A school system that has the greatest difficulty inculcating even basic skills and maintaining order is not going to be teaching children Mandarin Chinese any time soon.

    I’ll be more impressed when Daley slashes the patronage-laden central administration by 50 % to free up money for actual use teaching students in classrooms.

    If only education was half the priority for politicians in Illinois that giving taxpayer dollars to mobbed up, politically connected, construction firms seems to be.

  • You don’t have to convince me, Mark. The Chicago Public Schools used to be a client of mine and I’m well-aware of the remarkable levels of inefficiency, bureaucracy, and arrogance there.

  • rose meservey Link

    is this article serios or what because you dont spell the with a “D” you moron and if you are trying to sound like a thug it aint working buddy

  • matt trujillo Link

    The only reason adults want kids to have a longer school day and year is because they never had to have it and they just want to find more ways to occupy kids time.

    so if you ask me it is all a bunch of hypocritical

  • matt trujillo Link

    BULL%@#$

  • rayray Link

    what tha hell this is bull&%#@

  • Elizabeth Link

    because i have to do this for a research paper i think that having a longer school year would be too much money and it would only cause communities to go more into debt or become more poor. although having a longer school year would mean that students like myself would learn more and take in more and be ready and able to take on the other nations in competeing for jobs. all in all its a great idea but where does the money come from?

  • JANET Link

    i think that the school year shouldn’t be extended.school is stressing and we need time of to relax and do nothing!plus basketball season is coming up and if the school year was longer i wouldn’t be able to stay up late and watch all the games on tv.

    GO SUNS!

  • this man is crazzy if he think im going to stay in school 6-days
    and shorten my summer

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