Fewer school days mean less driving
Some school districts are reconsidering their typical five-day roster in order to save a few bucks. Alisa Roth covers one school cutting back an entire day of classes -- which could amount to six-figure savings.
School bus (iStockphoto)
More on Education
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: Today's high gas prices are forcing some heavy users of fuel to reconsider business as usual. Among them, school districts. Alisa Roth reports.
Alisa Roth: It's like having a snow day once a week. When students in rural Caldwell Parish, Louisiana go back to school in September, they'll only have four days of classes.
The district only has about 1,700 students. But they're scattered over a wide area. So the school buses drive more than a thousand miles a day.
John Sartin is superintendent of the district:
John Sartin: In figuring the amount of savings not only from the fuel but also from water and gas and electricity, we believe we'll have a significant savings.
Sartin thinks the district could save more than $100,000 a year. Caldwell joins a handful of other school districts around the country that have made similar calculations.
He promises quality won't be comprised. The four days will be longer and more compact. And off days will be used for remedial classes and teacher training.
Of course, working parents will be left to sort out child care for the extra day. But the local library hopes to help out; it's thinking about extending its summer children's program into the fall.
In New York, I'm Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
Comments
Comment | Refresh
From hawkins, TX, 10/06/2009
we should not have more school days reason is my child has anough work to do without more school work to put her over her head
From waterloo, ON, 10/28/2008
no
From Sammamish, WA, 06/23/2008
Try finding child care for only 1 day a week. If there isn't a stay-at-home parent, the few options available are extremely expensive. Covering for sickness and snow days during the school year is hard enough.
From Houston, TX, 06/20/2008
The biggest problem with this idea is the additional costs to working parents. It will not save them in gas, since their child or children still require daycare on the days they have no school.
Most daycares charge additional fees for the entire day versus before and after school. For our son, we have to pay an additional $25 a day on school holidays that are for the school, not the parents, such as teacher in service days; meaning parents could have to pay $100 a month or more in additional childcare costs.
On top of all the other rising costs, gas, food, electricity, etc… this could really cause more problems for families who are already struggling to get by.
From vineland, NJ, 06/20/2008
Ridiculous. The school day is long enough as it is, and I don't mean for the average student. The average teacher can't keep kids on track at the end of the day as it is, so giving kids an 8 hour day is going to improve things? The school _may_ save $100,000 a year, while at the same time impairing the opportunity for each and everyone of their students making $100,000 a year. Take the subsidies away from the farms, oil companies, and give them to the schools...
Post a Comment: Please be civil, brief and relevant.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. All comments are moderated. Marketplace reserves the right to edit any comments on this site and to read them on the air if they are extra-interesting. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting.
You must be 13 or over to submit information to American Public Media. The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party. For more information see Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.