State senator hopes to extend school year

Education is like medication, it is quality that counts, not quantity. 22 extra days of education are not going to make a difference when the quality remains low. I believe that if the quality of education in Arkansas, which is very poor, would improve to the national standard, our kids could learn more in a short amount of time, and rest when they need to. The lack of quality puts such a psychological and emotional burden on our kids that by the time school is over for the summer, they are exhausted. 22 more days would do more damage to them than good. If our government would spend as much time securing ways for our kids to have healthy fun during the summer break, their time in the classroom would be more productive. The quality of teachers in our schools have seriously dropped in this country because of unionization. When you do a job because you love doing it, you are more productive, but if you have a job because you are part of a union, your priority is money, not teaching. Any teacher who would desert their students to go on strike do not deserve the title of Teacher. 95% of today's graduates become teachers because of the union promise of money instead of being concerned about educating kids. 75% of Arkansas high school graduates not being able to pass an Armed Services Exam will not be fixed with more days in class, but with the improvement of the quality of their education. Teachers need to be held accountable for that quality, and if they do not measure up, they should be sanctioned or terminated. The unions keep the states from exercising quality control on their workers, while non-union workers are held to a higher level of expectation. It is the private sector workers that carry this country while the union workers are allowed to be overpaid for lower quality performance. Get rid of the unions, put state employees to the same standard of quality control as the private sector and the quality of education will improve.

Sounds good to me, 365 days would be awsome!

until more parents take interest in their kid's schooling they could go 24 hours a day and it won't make any difference. I volunteer a lot at schools and it's depressing to see how many kids just don't care about doing well in school and their parents don't push them. something needs to be done nationwide--we are going to be a nation of dummies at the rate kids are dropping out.

I do agree totally. I feel that nation wide our kids are behind. I think that going to school year round with time off throughout the year is the way to go.