Families center their schedule around work and school, and for parents earning more, their children are privileged to have after-school activities. But it's not the same case for low-income families, so proposals in support of longer school days are being pushed to better serve students from this bracket.
Low-income families do not have the extra money to send their children to ballet lessons, or math and reading tutorials, or sports camp. When the kids come home after six hours in school, many are left to fend for themselves as their parents slave away at work to make ends meet. The lack of activities and proper supervision make the children idle and increase problems of crime, drug use and unexpected pregnancy in some cases, per Boston Globe. This is the reality of income inequality in America, but the schools can become part of the solution.
Some U.S. Schools Have Started Experimenting With Longer School Days
There have been efforts in some schools in the state of Massachusetts to expand school days to better serve disadvantaged students, such as certain elementary and middle schools in the Lawrence and Springfield districts. However, there are still problems to hurdle with this experimental set-up. For one thing, longer school days mean teachers have to be paid for the extra hours. The timing comes in light of teachers' compensation and budget cuts discussions, which is an ongoing issue in many schools around America.
Income Inequality And School Privilege Is A Global Problem, But The Solution Is The Same
This problem isn't unique to the U.S. as the solution to have longer school days are also being looked into in schools in the United Kingdom. In fact, this was included in the U.K. government's budget proposal for 2016.
"Providing schooling is the single most important thing we can do to help children from a disadvantaged background to succeed," said Chancellor George Osborne, via BBC. Osborne's plan is to have all schools switch to academy status by 2020 to raise the quality of education of the children, and in essence, their chances at a better life. In order to do this, institutions will have to add five more hours a week for extra school activities and the government should support this, per Mirror.
Will local governments in the U.S. follow the same thing and provide public schools the budget to expand school days? What do you think of this move to have longer school days?
