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Thursday, December 08, 2005

Longer school year

I'm all for this. It seems like a no-brainer considering how important education is, and how far we are slipping behind the rest of the world.

Once again, thought, resort owners are against it. No offense, but the future of Minnesota's economy does not lie in resorts. It likes in biotech, nanotech, and other bleeding-edge industries that require education. And I don't buy the whole "teens need summer jobs to be complete" bit. While it's true to a certain extent, no 15-year old really needs a summer job to "find themselves." Save it for wacky college.

The only problem is how to pay for it, and that's a big one. But investments in education are just that: investments. If our state's leaders have any sense, they will find a way to turn this into reality.

1 Comments:

At 9:12 PM, December 08, 2005, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never going to happen. Not in my lifetime. My wife is a teacher and they don't want to pay her adequately for the time she works now. Do you honestly believe they're going to increase her pay by 1/7th or so?

And like she just yelled to me across the room, will they pony up the extra funds to air condition the schools for summer classes? After OSHA banned all fans without grounded outlets, they're already feeling the heat in late spring. With reports of school districts instituting "electricity taxes" on teachers to save money, on what planet will they retrofit schools, pay increased wages and the additional fuel costs for buses this plan would require?! They'll realize my pipe dream of eliminating mandatory education in this country before they make steps to year-round schooling.

 

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