nation

I'd bet my work shirt that the people pushing year-round school- never had a summer job. Kids learn DIFFERENT things during summer; things they cannot learn in school; and things critical to a healthy life. We know that. Except, apparently, for some academics who think "life" and "school" are synonymous. They really, truly, aren't.

I'd bet my work shirt that the people pushing year-round school- never had a summer job. Kids learn DIFFERENT things during summer; things they cannot learn in school; and things critical to a healthy life. We know that. Except, apparently, for some academics who think "life" and "school" are synonymous. They really, truly, aren't.

Finland is the arguably the number one nation on earth when it comes to education. I wonder if anyone in Finland would utter these words as part of their philosophy: "Camps, hotel operators and other summer-specific industries raise red flags about the potential economic effect."

No mention of poverty levels when comparisons are made? No mention of cultural diversity when comparisons are made? The fact is that when we compare apples to apples (poverty and cultural diversity), The USA outperforms all other countries in educational outcomes.

I agree, it is time for year around school. Continuity will be preserved. I worked part time jobs from the time I was 16 while attending school and was active in many after school activities. Time management is a must even at an early age. I see Personal finance is now offered in many HS and think this course needs to be required so found people can learn good basic financial responsibility. It would also help parents who both work with the cost of child care. Maybe a two week break can be given mid summer for vacations.

When is America going to get serious about fixing education? Examine the real problem please and that would be a certain percentage of our students that have no desire, will, or responsibility when it comes to every single school across our state. These kids show up for school because they have to be there for 180 plus days a year. They fail miserably. They create problems for the remainder of the school population whether you like it or not. So the solution to us competing is to make them attend school for more days? I have no problem with more schools days for the kids who want to be there and will benefit by it. But to suggest that we are somehow going to be better off globally because of this initiative, is pure foolishness. If you want to improve our schools, I suggest you leave politicians, think tanks, and political columnists out of it, and instead talk to the people who know; the teachers and students. They will tell you what is wrong and then you can decide what to do. Bet you that "a longer school year" is way down on the list of their solutions. It gets old!

Though I do not have children of my own, I sure would want my child/children be the best educated people in the world. I hope that this test project works. How I hate seeing kids sitting at home watching TV/playing with their new "smart phone", etc. Our children deserve the best, so lets get them going in the right direction!

"But there's a catch: a much shorter summer vacation." That's not a "catch". It's a benefit.

MN is the only state that does not have a set number of days or instructional hours. Each district can dictate its own. On average MN has 174 school days. The argument that summer is productive for students to learn different skills during the summer is crap! How many students in K-9 have summer jobs? MN has almost 3 full months in summers which is way too many days to be away from learning. When compared to other countries, such as our neighbor Canada there are 196 instructional days, school ends last day of June and returns the day before or the day after Labor Day. MN ends fist week of June. The quality of education and value to the students suffer. What is the big discussion of additional costs. Teachers receive an annual salary which is split over 10 months and some have theirs spread out over 12 months. Do our kids a favor and let them learn!

In minnesota, the focus is not on the child, but the teachers thanks to the teachers unions. the real problem is that the carriculum sucks. example: one top student said she was forced to take a 'beading' class rather than a math coarse. Get back to teaching the basics, getting the parents involved. some of my best learning occured while on summer vacation with my family.