President Obama’s Plan To Make Kids Attend School Longer Gets Cool Reaction

Columbia, SC—As fifth-graders at Killian Elementary School, in Columbia, learn about our country’s Westward expansion, President Barack Obama is talking about school day and school year expansion. The President says U.S. students don’t spend enough time in school, which puts them at a disadvantage around the world. So, he wants to shorten summer vacation, lengthen the school day…or both.

Raigan Muldrow, fifth-grader: “Students wouldn’t like that. They would learn more, but I don’t think people would like that very much.“

Robert Kittle, reporting: “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says our current school calendar is based on the need for children to be out of school so they could help with farming, and since so few children do that any more, it’s time to make a change. He says he wants to level the playing field with children in other countries who are going to school 25 to 30 percent longer than our children are.“

Studies show that, over the summer, especially children from low-income families, lose some of what they learned during the school year. And, a study on math scores found that adding minutes to the day does help.

Nicole Whitley, teacher: “I think every teacher feels like that. You kinda hate at the end of the day, the students kind of get into something and you think, ‘Gosh, if I only had 10 more minutes!‘ Or, at the end of the year, you feel like maybe you didn’t cover everything as well as you could have just due to, you know, the time constraints and you feel like maybe an additional month.“

Killian Elementary School, in Columbia, is starting 10 minutes earlier…and the extra time is added to math. It’s too early to know if it’s helping.

Eric Brown, Principal: “I think, if you’re looking to create students to excel academically, you’re going to have to look at those programs that are going to give the students the time that they need.“

At this point…this is just an idea. Longer school years and school days would cost more money. A spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Education says our schools lost about $400 million last year…so there’s no way to add class time…without adding a lot more money.