Cost Effective Education Idea

We Must Do Better

Today we will take a break from the Bus Trip Across Georgia and present a concept that is sure to catch the eye of any elected official, local, state and who knows, maybe even a national elected official.

In recent months I have expended a fair amount of time in Medical Treatment Facility Waiting Rooms.  I have used this opportunity to read the many magazines that are available.  Recently I was eyeing the selections available and I was  captivated by the Cover Story entitled "The Case Against Summer Vacation" in the August 2, 2010 issue of Time Magazine.

The cover showed a young male skipping rocks across a pond of water in a very casual pose.  He certainly appeared to be enjoying Summer.,

The article written by David Von Drehle contained these sub-headings:

• It's an outdated legacy of the farm economy.  Adults still romanticize it.  But those months out of school do the most damage to the kids who can least afford it.
• By ninth grade, summer learning loss could be blamed for roughly two-thirds of the achievement gap separating income groups.

I have memories of when our oldest Son attended Elementary School in San Diego, California many years ago.  He attended year round school and enjoyed it very much.  In fact the tax payers also enjoyed it.  It was a fact that the San Diego School System could have twenty percent more students in any facility by simply having it in operation around the year.

It was also beneficial to the parents because the students did not require day care for the long Summer months.  Certainly cost effective in so many aspects.

This is certainly something that should be considered by all School Systems in urban/surburban settings.  Not many families farm these days.  Additionally, the breaks in the school year scheme in a year round system would allow families to take Vacations during the off-peak times.  Yet another savings of funds.

There are so many win, win aspects of this concept that I find it difficult to believe that it has not been implemented on a national basis.  In fact, local school systems would be well advised to implement a year round education scheme both as a cost reduction scheme because less class rooms would be required and Scholars would not have the knowledge loss that is associated with the long Summer Break.

Admittedly this concept would not bode well in the Farm Belt, but then again, we all know that we have very few farmers in our United States of America.