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Plan adds 6 weeks to school year

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano is to unveil a plan today that could make summer vacation for students go the way of slide rules and blackboard erasers. The proposal being announced this morning in Washington, D.C., seeks a 210-day school year across the United States, particularly in school districts with a large percentage of students who perform poorly. That is six weeks longer than the 180 days now required under Arizona law and six weeks longer than the national average. But that's not all: The report by a national task force Napolitano co-chairs also wants a longer school day. It doesn't say specifically how long, but it refers to a chain of charter schools where students attend from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. - and half a day on Saturdays. The proposals aren't sitting well with some students, or their parents. "It's like ruining our free time. I'm sure more kids will drop out if that happens," said Scott King, 15, a sophomore at City High School in Downtown Tucson. Patricia Brescia, who has a daughter at Flowing Wells High School and a son at Borton Primary Magnet School, said keeping students in school longer "just means an added chance of burning them out." Joe Brescia, 6, thinks mom is right on this one. The first-grader said he wants to keep school the way it is, with longer summers and more after-school activities, not more studies. Zelma Fesler, who has an 11-year-old daughter at Faith Community Academy, 2551 W. Orange Grove Road, joined the chorus of critics of an extended school year. "Summers are short enough as it is," she said. But she thinks the longer school day has appeal because it allows parents to avoid having to deal with after-school care or getting kids into programs. Willow Wells, also 15 and a sophomore at City High, worried that the shorter summer break would torpedo family vacation plans. "We learn enough," she said. Napolitano said Monday night that she had "some problems" with the fact that students in Arizona are in school only 180 days. But she wasn't ready to say that 210 is the appropriate number. "We need to identify the standards that an Arizona diploma represents and then calculate what that means in terms of students in seats, with qualified teachers, learning the stuff," Napolitano said. She stressed that if additional classroom time is mandated, it must be "time well-spent" and not just more hours spent sitting at desks. Her panel also recommends full-day kindergarten, something Napolitano already is pushing in Arizona. It also wants preschool available for all 3- and 4-year-olds. The report's authors acknowledge that there is a cost, putting the price tag for just beginning to implement the recommendations at $325 billion nationwide over the next decade. The preschool proposal alone is estimated at $11.6 billion a year, even if it's limited to students from low-income families. But the study says every dollar spent on preschool returns $7 in terms of higher earning as well as avoided costs of crime and remedial education. Other costs are not spelled out or broken down by state. But there are some indicators. For example, Arizonans voted five years ago to extend the school year by just five days, to the current 180 days, which carries a price tag of $86.3 million. And state-funded full-day kindergarten in Arizona is estimated to cost close to $200 million. Becky Hill, the governor's education adviser, said Monday night that the fact that Napolitano co-chairs the panel doesn't mean she's endorsing every recommendation. But Hill said panel members, who had hearings in several cities, including Phoenix, studied the experience of charter schools, which have more flexibility in their schedules. "The longer day and the longer year is something that repeatedly charter schools are seeing lots and lots of success with," Hill said. "It needs to be applied in a broader, more global scale." She said this is particularly true for students who are falling behind and who "need a little extra time to catch up." Martin Drozdoff, a retired special-education teacher, said a longer school year would help students retain what they learn each year. "It would help raise teachers' income and would be a tremendous buildup of skills with the students," he said. The only snag would be figuring out how to pay for those additional days, he said. The task force was put together by the Institute for America's Future and the Center for American Progress. Toby Chaudhuri, who handles media for the institute, described both as progressive think tanks. He said both tend to lean toward Democratic principles, much in the same way the Heritage Foundation tends to support Republican causes. But Chaudhuri noted that while Napolitano is a Democratic politician, the other two co-chairs are not: Philip Murphy, senior director of the Goldman Sachs Group, and Roger Wilkins, a professor of history and American culture at George Mason University.