Reader Feedback: Should School Day/Year be Lengthened?

In his State of the State address on Wednesday in Albany, Gov. Andrew Cuomo discussed the possibility of extending the school day and/or the school year to help better educate students. Cuomo proposed a competitive grant program for schools that develop initiatives to improve student achievement that would include extending learning time by at least 25 percent.

We asked our Facebook fans if they felt that extending the school day/school year would be a benefit to students. Below are a few of the responses (add your own thoughts on the topic in the comments section below this article). 

Suzanne Glass-Russo: I absolutely agree, in so far as extending the school year. Lets face it... After a week of summer break, your child is bored to tears...Give them 1 or 2 weeks several times a year. The secondary reason this would be helpful is child care costs. This will help parents who are unable to take time off from work, or cannot afford child care. 

Tina Perdue Keating: I think these kids should stopped being pushed so hard to learn that they are stressed out at 6 like adults. Maybe they should focus on social skills a little more these days. If I remember correctly we had play time and social time in the 70s- 80s and there were far less drug overdoses, less crazed 20-something's shooting people for no reason and less bullying. Let them be kids while they're kids....we all grew up to be successful members of society!!!

Jennifer Bracero-Carbajal: I'm all for improving the children's education but I too agree that at a young age these kids are being pushed too hard. There's preschool, pre-preschool it's pushing the kids to start too early, enough already. Maybe they would learn more if the classroom sizes weren't so big and they had the budget to hire more teachers. Schools are too worried about how the students grades are making them look so they cut out some of the curriculum to compensate. What is that teaching them?

Courtney Lynn: I think if parents kept their children off the computer, and the cell phones, and the iPads and what not and instead took interest in their child's education and encouraged their kids to work as hard as they game, things would be just fine. There's nothing wrong with some mindless play, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

Deborah Stimpfl: It will cost money to extend the school day. It will also frustrate children and be a health hazard because of the heat. There are classrooms in my school that are 110 degrees in June! Also, schools are not child care centers, teachers not babysitters, and not designed to save people money on cold care. When the day/year is extended, we WILL pay for it in our taxes. At a time where we are cutting so much yet adding so much testing, this will be another expense we will pay for as our schools continue to suffer and our kids education is compromised.