Hawaii Forced to Cut School Year by 20% to Save Money

by Mike Smith · 2009-10-22 16:29:00 UTC
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All of Hawaii's 256 public schools have been forced to move to a four-day week due to the continuing effects of the economic crisis on school budgets. Tomorrow, schools will be closed for all 171,000 students, and the closures will last for at least two years. This will cause the loss of 17 days of teaching. The kids may celebrate two years of long weekends, but it's bad news for parents who will be forced to find alternative arrangements for their children.

This makes the Department of Education's plans to lengthen the school year sound crazy — where will the money come from if states are already struggling? Hawaii is one of the states that would really benefit from reform and investment with the state finding itself 47th in reading and mathematics scores amongst eight-graders. They'll be hoping President Obama steps in to solve the problem, considering that he graduated from one of Hawaii's top private high schools.

Parents have already filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the 171,000 students, but with teachers agreeing that the move was necessary, does this put the teachers and parents at odds with one another? Jack Jennings, president of the Washington-based Center on Education Policy explained that its the kids who will suffer most from 20 percent fewer school days: "The less time spent on a task, the less likely it is that you're going to achieve."

Photo credit: Torres21

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
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