We need to give the kids a better education. If it takes a longer year then so be it. The schools are open for summer school anyway.

This is a large and complicated idea that I believe would meet much resistance from the teacher's unions for one. The real question is how much will it cost,how do you implement it, where do you do this, and who is in charge of managing this change?

I like the idea of revamping the education system, it's obvious it needs to be done, but there are many components to consider.

There is also the matter of the other unresolved issues with two ongoing wars,a broken economy,health care reform, and that little Iran problem.

The President is great at articulating ideas and suggestions, but I think we should complete some objectives before starting new ones.

if he wants these kids to be smarter he need to make sure that this whole standardize test crap isnt what makes you graduate in high school or even in elementary school or middle school pass that grade it just need to gauge where they are at thats one good reason i hated florida's education system. FCAT was a scam and had no purpose but to fill at that time governor bush's friends pocket with money.

~Ufufu...

You can't blame the students, by far it those who teach them, if you measure a majority of those by District of Columbia(which is an easy expieriment), and compare that to the Untied states which is way more, filled with an enitrely different environment...Furthermore, the plan could just collapse, because students are working for education, but they would get terribly discouraged by this and most would dropout...

But, more importantly for those who think this plan will happen, from the government, it will not becaus it would be illegal, Barrack is only making a statement, he cannot control the States like that, District of Columiba is a different story.....

Such a shame though, Blasted education system..

nursediesel,
If we are talking about how things USED to be, then we can obviously bring up the fact that the vast majority of human existence was lived with no agriculture, and humans used to have more leisure time than the average person does now, better diets, and children attended no school, but learned everything they needed to learn to be happy and healthy adults to provide for their communities. Of course, those times are not these times, most of us have been infected and enslaved by civilization. I'm not suggesting "going back" to anything of course. Just saying, that's how things "USED" to be.

Freedom is freedom, and i don't appreciate you having the gang we all call the U.S. government use their guns to force me and my children to attend your state approved education camps.
I don't have words to express the sorrow i feel when i see people claiming this is a good idea. Less free time for individuals, more violent monopoly (state) power.
Happiness in slavery, indeed.

You're all aware that the amount of school that children are forced (by violence) to undertake by the state is a method by which children and young adults are kept off the job market, right? This is something even the u.s. government admits in history books.

If it isn't voluntary then it's coercive. All of you who support this are slave masters and yet some how you don't seem to care. You want a bunch of people with guns to use these guns to force other people to put their children into specially sanctioned education camps.
All regulation is enforced with violence.

Thanks for the captivity folks.
More guns solves everything!!

I always felt it was wrong to give kids weeks off at Christmas, 6 days at Thanksgiving and then monthes off all summer. (We don't plant and harvest anymore).
Jobs require you to work 8 hours a day. 51-52 weeks/year.(unless you are a teacher),

Secondly, if they would go back to the real basics; subjects children need as a foundation and the other classes as electives then maybe they wouldn't need to add more than the 180 school days.

There would be four 2 week vacations involved in four different seasons. What do young working parents do when their 3rd grader has the summer off?
School's curriculum is more suspect than the time allotted for school. The "No Child Left Behind" unfunded mandate is not helping either.

More time in the education camps huh?
If this isn't cause for revolution i fail to see what is.

What.
The.
Hell.

oh my freakin god...

This is an excellent idea...We are living in the 21st century, and our children are falling behind the rest of the World in Math and Science.....We are living and competing in a Global Society....Children of today, are the future workforce of tomorrow...Only the well educated have a chance of competing with a Global Job Market....High unemployment in America should be a motivator, and reason to educate our children well.....Obama is a very intelligent and wise President, who is making 21st Century decisions.

Making school days longer will only result in more tired and less productive students. I had to go to school at 7:15 AM when I was in high school. Students get pretty grumpy around 4:00 PM when they have to get up that early. Than you have to factor in homework and extra curricular activities.

i can understand why some people approve of the idea, but i get good grades and feel that i can stack up to students overseas. i think the real problem is that (in my school, anyway) lots of kids just don't care, especially on government standardized tests, which seriously lowers the overall grade of the school.

Yeah, I think it would be worthwhile to extend the day slightly. It would also be good to break up summer somewhat.

I don't think that we should lengthen the days in every subject, but just the ones that really need the help. Parents have to work, so the schedules should be compatable with normal work schedules.

Also, I think that it shouldn't be mandadory for kids over a certain age (16?) to waste their time in school doing nothing. Kids who have proven themselves responsible enough should be able to make the descisions themselves. I know I hated sitting in class doing nothing when I could have been working and saving money for college. The only reason I had to be there was gov a mandate that said the school only got money if I was there for more than 6 hours regardless of whether I was gettting the best grade in the class or not.

OOH and also if you want to help educate kids we should start with honesty in advertising. I think that would help. A little morality can go a long way. I mean that's where american kids spend the majority of there time. Am I right? Can I get an Amen or its politically correct equivilant

we do need education reform, and summer vacation is obsolete. perhaps we can do schooling like the Japanese.

WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR IT? Just think of it from an economic stand point. There have been substantial cuts in schools' funding for years down here in Florida. This public school system still teaches kids that Columbus discovered North America?!?!?! Yes kids, native americans don't count as people who actually lived here for thousands of years.
What We need is FREE post-high school educaton and vocational training for those who want it. The current system is based on the Industrial era idea of a 9 to 5 serf standard lower class.
The Obamanator is touching on too many issues at once in a haphazard fashion that leans more on the "Govt. Knows Best" side. I voted for him so that we could get away from BIG GOVT ways of George Bush.

He wants them in school more --- singing praise songs about him.

Good thing I'm already out of it, I do feel a little sorry for my kids if this actually happens, which...lets be real...it won't. Too many people are against it, and Obama is the president and all, but he's not capable of shooting down all those people.

This is a stupid idea :/ Shorting summer vacation will only give those who don’t want to learn more time to draw or sleep in class or to consider dropping out, if you don’t want to learn no matter how much time you spend in school, you won’t learn a thing, and it is a shame that all the people who are doing what they need to do in school have to be stuck in school over what is supposed to be their summer vacation just because of some slackers :/ I for one am currently in the 10th grade and I can tell if a child doesn’t want to learn he/she won’t learn. Teachers preach the same thing everyday in class, it is the students responsibility to get what they need to do done.

All you people that aren’t in school or have recently got out of school and are agreeing with this go talk to your neighborhood school teach, they’ll tell you.

This will only cause two things, more time wasted in school or more drop outs.

This is not the solution :/

I think the difference is the school schedule. Asian countries go to school year round and have breaks during the year, as we have often debated. The three month break basically requires kids to re-learn a lot of material because they forget it during the summer.

I mean like they always ask what did you do for the summer & they remember it , but if you ask them what did you learn last semester they cannot remember now think about it they seem to have forgotten what they have learned for ten months , why not give them June off
then back to school the next month only to return in August so they won't forget , I hear we have really dumb kids compared to most all over the world , & you know what lately i have noticed WE DO !

What??? Kids in Japan spend less time in school??? That is crazy! Kids in japan spend from 8 in the morning to 11 in the evening in School, they clean they're schools too AND they have homework. The american schools are rotten they have a very fun and interesting system but unfortunately it's not a good one. You can see all the problems if you go in a shop and the 17-year-old employee can't calculate the change by himself. I think that giving students the opportunity to go to class in the afternoon is very important even though it's a bit difficult with insurances and safety... cutting vacation days is a little too much, but the system needs a change!

I hope this is only his opinion and not a Dept of Ed plan. Each state has the right to decide these issues for themselves.

The "traditional school calendar" is based on the US as an agrarian society. We no longer are so changing it to fit our lifestyles should not be a bad thing.

Perhaps a shorter school day coupled with more school days.

Just a few generic opinions

I agree because keeping kids in school later will help working family s. I know many of the parents i work with have to work there hours around there kids school days. Then have to call of all together if they can not find a sitter.

On another note the reason kids are still failing despite more class time in my opinion is do to the fact that parents do not stress the importance of school, teachers are not trained to recognize or handle certain learning problems, and class rooms are to full.

More time in a Government run school and less time at home with the family. That sounds about par with Obama. Maybe we can use that extra time to memorize the new public school Obama song too.

As I read all the posts coming into my inbox you are all missing the point.Government has decided that the MCAS is the solution to education. Our children are not being given a complete education,but rather just enough for this system of standardized testing! If they pass the MCAS the government is happy.Standardized testing is not the solution people! our kids need a complete education and that will not be solved by standardized testing. no other civilized country uses just standardized testing as a basis for education. this system is ruining our kids.they need to learn math,science,english,history,and all the other basics of a good education but instead they just learn how to pass the MCAS,and its the sole determintion used.we must return to the basics of education and dump the MCAS! Increasing school hours or making our kids go all year long with no summer vacation is not the answer!

We do need better school systems. Children should be put into advance daycares at a young age, like in China. We have to get children smarter at a young age. This should carry on to their older years. Many students do learn different so this too should be taken into account.

It is time we raise the steaks and give the younger generations a fighting chance!

it's a really progressive option, but i doubt it'll work. we really are educationally behind in what we teach and what our kids know, but this will take a lot of convincing if he thinks it will be put into effect.

plus it's more of a state issue anyway, and it's better if we gave students better options when it came to spending their free time. there is a very obvious issue with technology-induced apathy with the younger generations.

Where exactly in the constitution does it say it is the President's job to dictate how long kids stay in school?

IF it could be reviewed by teachers, ( who are actually in a position to speak with authority and experience )I would listen to that before I shot off my mouth or made a decision.......

Yes, yes, let's have the federal government arbitrarily decide education standards for the whole nation. The states have no ability to do shit themselves. Yeah.

"When all government, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the Center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated." -Thomas Jefferson.

this article is a pretty little piece of hype meant to stir shit up. Obama can't legally do any of that. He's absolutely right, that kids need more of an education ( and a BETTER education ), but it's not like he can actually DO any of it. Evidence: the healthcare system debacle.

looks like i dropped out just in time ;P

Could we maybe, PROVIDE MORE FEDERAL FUNDING while you're at it?!?!!?

In Japan, students get a few breaks during the year instead of on long break and they don't forget things they learned during the school year as much as our pathetic students.

he wants the american students to be on top of the line. i dont think its such a bad idea. its how use those extra school time can be good.

Also, I thinkt he title of this post is a little inappropriate... Obama doesn't want to just shorten summer vacation for the hell of it (and really, the only reason you should only give a shit about short summer vacations is if you're in seventh grade). Obama wants to improve education in America. That is what this article is about, not summer vacation.

This is a good thing. I'm a student and I wouldn't mind going to school year-round, with longer holiday breaks. Some people say we need to increase the quality as opposed to the quantity, but why not just increase both? We aren't losing anything by investing time and money in education.

I want to see how the obama administration explores other solutions to our hurt education system. I am of the belief that more time in the class room will benefit but classroom size and supplies play a larger role in success. With the economic downturn, classroom sizes are no doubt increasing and supplies are becoming scarce.

In my opinion, terrible idea. You cannot just consider the actual school hrs. What about the High School students (especially upperclassmen including Juniors because of SAT/ACT, exit lvl state standardized testing, general large amounts of work) that put in 2 or 3 more hrs of homework time outside of school.

Las Vegas has had year round schools for a long time now. The kids get 3 week breaks throught the year instead of one summer vacation. That is only for the grades up to 6th I believe. What he is proposing is nothing new.

Summer was originally just for kids to work on the farm and help out. Now years later we have lazy kids that become self involved and what has it been good for?

Kidding.

People need vacation time.

Even little people. I think that going two months off one month works for me or three months off one month.

This would be good for students and teachers...because of how much they have already cut back. When I was a kid, school was from 8am-3:15pm and summer break was 2 1/2 months long, my kids currently go to school from 7:50-2pm and out at noon on Wednesdays and have over 3 months of summer vacation.I see lots of kids wondering the street at 2 in the afternoon, tell me why it wouldn't be better to have them in school longer? My son is in 3 grade and is the ONLY kid out of all the 3rd graders that is an advanced reader?? How does this happen? It's because parents are at work all day and kids are picking up the controllers instead of books! As a parent wanting to raise little Einsteins, this looks great, but unfortunatly there are also parents that do need the child care...I say it's better than having these kids roaming the streets...

I thought Obama was a Constitutional scholar? His degree is severely devalued because one again, he is proposing another unconstitutional measure. The Federal government has absolutely no role in dictating anything about state ran education systems.

Beyond that, this is probably the dumbest proposal he has had yet. So how do we fixed our failing education system? We make those kids spend more time and spend more money on that same failed education system. This is beyond logic and Obama need to be reigned in.

You want to fix the education system? Abolish the DOE and privatize education and see how quickly we catch up to other countries.

Blast..

I think this is a state wide issue. I think more funding state wide is the only way to get the kiddos heads swelling with knowledge. And another thing schools teach the same old fake ass stories. The spice trade from world history was really the first drug ring. You get to learn all this dumb ass shit no one cares about anymore. Teach a kid how to swindle money and fuck people out of 401ks and we could go places!

It sounds like baby sitting or a way to teach students more of the stuff that they are already teaching that we may or may not agree with.

In japan I didn't get home until like 7pm but I had activities after about 3 pm and research projects, and group stuff. Some organized, some we just were responsible to have done.

People could leave the school after classes, and some did. If I was sick I did.
But I walked and took a bus that ran later, just like most other did.

Only good thing, when I got back to the USA, college was really easy. I enjoyed it. Because I needed the break. Everything else was crazy & difficult.

Well I think it's more important we give our students goals. Something like going to the moon was for the baby boomers. I think we need a new challenge for a new century rather than just more hours in school.

However allowing schools to operate more like civic centers in terms of giving kids a safe place to go to on weekends is a great idea, and if a kid want's some extra credit hours to graduate early and is willing to sacrifice a few hours on saturday than we know there are teachers willing to give that time along with the children. I can only vouch for my experience of true boredom will living in a rural community and my parents fears when we lived in the inner city in indy, and most extracurricular activities tended to not be so wholesome and not involve education. I think this is the type of solution that helps both of those situations.

Idiot.

QUALITY over QUANTITY. Dur.

Deciding on how long the school year should be is not the job of the federal government. Who gives a fuck about how much time children in other countries spend at school? We're not other countries.

America shouldn't have to "compete" and "keep up" with the rest of the world. I wish people would get over their love affair with internationalism and the Imperial Presidency.

Education is supposed to be an issue for the states, not the federal government.

They (non-US schools) are in school more days but less hours!! If we were to get more days and same hours the economy would also shift due to kids not being out spending their parents money...

Also no one would work weekends ihatethemall it just says it would cut into the summer break.

More time in school does not equal smarter kids...

Obama needs/wants more time to indoctrinate the children.