America
States Push Back Against 4-Day School Week
Critics charge it hurts students and working families.
A BY MATTHEW LYSIAK
s the number of schools nationwide making the switch to a four-day week continues to grow, a coun-
ter-movement has emerged by con- cerned legislators to preserve the tra- ditional five-day week that has long been an American staple. Critics of the four-day schedule
claim that while the shortened week might benefit teachers and school administrators, it has come at the expense of student education. In Missouri, where more than a
third of the state’s 500 school districts have already made the transition to four days a week, a law has recently been passed to reverse the momentum through a combination of increased community input along with a series
of financial incentives that would reward schools for maintaining five- day weeks. Democrat state Sen. Doug Beck,
a former school board member, authored the law, which prohibits four-day school weeks in cities with more than 30,000 residents unless approved by district voters. “Four-day school weeks are bad for
students, hard for parents, and too big a decision to be kept from the voters,” said Beck. Passage of the Missouri law was prompted by concerns over lingering effects many students are still endur- ing as a result of learning disruptions attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Texas, a bill requiring five-day
HALF OF U.S. STATES HAVE AT LEAST ONE FOUR-DAY SCHOOL Nationwide, some 1,600 schools have adopted four-day schedules. As of 2018, the practice was most prevalent in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon,and South Dakota.
school weeks has been proposed, with advocates claiming that if passed, it would place the priority back on students.
Republican
state Sen. Donna Campbell, who authored the bill, told a committee hearing that the four-day schedule “has unintention- ally caused hard- ships on work- ing families and does not seem to improve student outcomes.” In total, more
Percentage of 4-Day Districts More than 20% More than 2% but less than 20% Less than 2%
None NOTE: Data as of 2018. Source: Center for Reinventing Public Education
than 1,000 school districts out of the nation’s 13,000 have already made
26 NEWSMAX | AUGUST 2024
the shift to the four-day school week — up significantly from four years ear- lier, when an estimated 650 districts in 24 states had adopted the schedule. Critics point out that the four-day schedules result in less in-time class, averaging only 148 school days per year, compared to the national aver- age of 180 days per year for five-day schools, according to the Associated Press.
However, advocates of the tradi-
tional five-day school week are often confronted by well-financed obstacles. In Louisiana, a grassroots movement to reinstate the five-day school week failed after resistance from the state’s teachers union. The legislation had broad sup-
port from parents but couldn’t over- come the powerful union, accord- ing to Republican state Sen. Beth Mizell, who authored the failed bill that would have incentivized five-day school weeks. An inverse effect on children mired
in economic hardships has become another consequence of the four-day school week, according to Mizell. “We are hearing from employees
who have no place to bring their chil- dren when they work, while for other kids, school is the only place where they can be sure of getting a meal,” said Mizell. In 2019, prior to remote learning, approximately 2.5 million students were homeschooled in the United States. This number has surged, with recent data from the National Home Education Research Institute indicat- ing that 3.1 million students are being homeschooled nationwide.
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