Crunching time

Facing budget shortfalls and an uncertain future, a few school districts have switched over to a four-day school week, and many more are considering it as a potential solution, including several local districts—recently, Oregon City and Coos Bay have discussed shortening the school week as a possible way to make ends meet.

Predictably, reactions from community residents—particularly those parents with children in school—seem to range from skepticism to fury. In fact, it might not be such a terrible idea after all, if we look at the school districts that have already adopted the four-day week.

This was an idea born during the fuel crisis of the 1970s, particularly in rural communities where bussing a small number of students from across a widespread area created a significant expense. Switching from five days to four, longer school days saved tons of money for the school budget.

Transportation costs are just one way in which a four-day school week (starting slightly earlier, ending a little later—the same amount of time is actually spent in school) can help with the economic crunch that every region, locally and nationally, is struggling with.

Heating and cooling school buildings one less day per week conserves energy and dollars. Less of the school’s budget would be spent on school lunches, on building maintenance, on insurance … so what are the costs to education?

Maybe none. Of the school districts that have adopted the abbreviated week, most report steady increases in overall test scores and attendance. Teacher absenteeism declines with the four-day week (another saving, rather than hiring substitutes at an additional expense). Teachers report that in many cases more of the curriculum is covered in this fewer-but-longer-days scenario.

Of course, this is less than ideal in many ways. Some working parents will have to find child care for the extra day off. Some proponents of the four-day week counter this argument with the idea that if junior high and high school aged students are on the same schedule, then the likely result would be a wider babysitting pool to choose from. Of course, that becomes an additional cost, which is what the original idea is trying to avoid.

Ideally, we’d be discussing ways to provide more and better education to everyone, instead of frantically trying to find ways to maintain the status quo. However, there is every indication that without some sacrifice and serious compromise, maintaining the standards we have now will no longer be possible.

If the options are keeping a five-day school week but laying off teachers and increasing classroom sizes (or closing down entire schools), suddenly a three-day weekend doesn’t seem so bad after all, does it?