Bill for 200-day school year survives first test

A bill to eliminate three-month summer vacations for students and extend the academic year to 200 days advanced today.

[Reader]

Ah ha! I guess I didn't realize that this state is below the national average in school days. I always though every state was the 180. Heck, no wonder these kids don't learn....Every time we turn around they are off for something!

[TempNewMexican]

If this passes, will the teachers do their job and teach all those days. Tired of them not dedicated to their job as teachers were when I went to school.

[SamIAm]

Wow...It's about time we removed the agricultural reasons for having a 3 month summer vacation. I'm glad to see this bill. Unfortunately, because of money shortages, it won't pass. But this needed to be done 30 years ago!

[myloneneuron]

TempNewMexican wrote:

If this passes, will the teachers do their job and teach all those days. Tired of them not dedicated to their job as teachers were when I went to school.

When you went to school, the number of days was less, not more. It was 172 for years and years. Went to 180 when the legislature added extra in-service days in lieu of a pay raise. Before that, 160-ish.

[BarbMoore]

Reader wrote:

Ah ha! I guess I didn't realize that this state is below the national average in school days. I always though every state was the 180. Heck, no wonder these kids don't learn....Every time we turn around they are off for something!

Better do a recount. APS doesn't even teach 180 days this school year.

[House of Critters]

It's still 172 for kids, the staff works 184.

In theory, year-round school with more one or two week breaks makes sense, but unless it's universal I don't think it will work well. You also have teahers and students both needing summer jobs, or special training/camps.

Bottom line in everything seems to be money, and I'm really astonished they are working so hard on something that will cost more money, when they don't have enough to pay for schools now.

[Really]

TempNewMexican wrote:

If this passes, will the teachers do their job and teach all those days. Tired of them not dedicated to their job as teachers were when I went to school.

Oh and you are just the model worker... Do you even have a Job?

[fedup]

It's not the number of days the students are in school that are really going to make a difference. What matters is the level of education they are receiving while they are there. Our school system expects far too little.

[TempNewMexican]

Really wrote:

<quoted text>
Oh and you are just the model worker... Do you even have a Job?

Yes I do. In matter of fact, I own a sucessful business. So take your comment and tell it to someone else.

[The Illogical One]

TempNewMexican wrote:

If this passes, will the teachers do their job and teach all those days. Tired of them not dedicated to their job as teachers were when I went to school.

Delurking for a moment. To declare some bona fides on your comment. I am not a teacher. However, my father was a teacher and administrator, and I have one offspring who is a teacher. So I have lived most of a middle-aged life around teacher.

If you think teachers in the old days (for me the 50/60/70 era -- started at the end of the 50's and graduated in the early 70's) were more dedicated, well, that's your opinion. But they were not as technically competent. Obviously, I'm speaking in generalities here: there have always been marvelous teachers scattered across school systems. We've all been fortunate enough (at least I hope we have) to have had the opportunity to learn from them. But there have also been some who could barely find the door in the morning. And most were in the middle.

And why should we expect anything else? Nowhere, not private business, not anywhere is the preserve of genius. Anyone who staffs an organization thinking to hire only "the best" will be sadly disappointed. You get some really good, and some really dreadful, and most just getting along and doing the best they can. The point is design your enterprise (schools in this case) so that the ordinarily competent and capable can succeed in the job you've given them to do.

Expanding the school year is an excellent suggestion. So would be expanding the school day (even if it means putting some downtime (i.e., recess type time) back into the day. We expect more of students than we used to in the sense that there's more material that needs to be mastered. Humans don't evolve very quickly (or not at all, if you believe some of our more Neanderthal neighbors). Most of us work longer hours than our parents did to master our crafts. Why do we expect our children to be able to do it that much better than we did/do?

And pay teachers for their skills. We have reached the point where if teachers don't have a graduate degree when they start teaching, they're expected to get very quickly. In what other field do we expect that level of training and pay so little to start? Remember that teaching is not stamping out widgets. It's knowledge work. It's the most important knowledge work, since it's where the future begins. When you walk in the classroom, you have a general plan for the class and for the day. But everything must be modified to meet the individual needs of the students and the needs of today.("Yes, there was a big earthquake in Japan. How does that affect people? How do earthquakes happen? You have family there?, etc.")

This proposal would be a good first step on a verrrrrrrrry long journey.

TIO (back to lurk mode)

[The Illogical One]

Some punctuation errors above! Fingers must be getting tired...

TIO

[Chaos Undercover]

Its not the quanity thats the problem....its the quality!

[Chaos Undercover]

House of Critters wrote:

It's still 172 for kids, the staff works 184.
In theory, year-round school with more one or two week breaks makes sense, but unless it's universal I don't think it will work well. You also have teahers and students both needing summer jobs, or special training/camps.
Bottom line in everything seems to be money, and I'm really astonished they are working so hard on something that will cost more money, when they don't have enough to pay for schools now.

Wish I could work just 184 days a year and still make 37 to 40k!!! That would be sweet.

[Ellen Wedum]

This is HB 407, introduced on Feb 8. And it just now makes it through its first committee? With less than a week to go it is not likely to make it to the House floor, let alone the Senate.

Cervantes' HB 207, setting up an independent commission to compare the NM Constitution to the constitutions in other states, has more of a chance. It has at least made it to the Senate Judiciary committee.

[Just Wondering]

TempNewMexican wrote:

If this passes, will the teachers do their job and teach all those days. Tired of them not dedicated to their job as teachers were when I went to school.

Will the parents do their job as well instead of giveing their kids material items. Will they help their kids with their homework, like my parents did. Helping your child get an education is the best gift you can give them.

Don't get me wrong, not all parents don't help their kids with school work because I believe many do, but all parents need to be involved with their kids school work.

I am not defending all teachers either. There are good ones and bad ones.

[Mike]

House of Critters wrote:

It's still 172 for kids, the staff works 184.
In theory, year-round school with more one or two week breaks makes sense, but unless it's universal I don't think it will work well. You also have teahers and students both needing summer jobs, or special training/camps.
Bottom line in everything seems to be money, and I'm really astonished they are working so hard on something that will cost more money, when they don't have enough to pay for schools now.

Good point!

Look at Wisconsin. I don't think there is a single state in the union with a budget SURPLUS right now and it's only going to get worse year after year from now on. Teacher layoffs and cuts to education are happening all over.

There is NO WAY to fund this proposal without a signifigant tax hike and of course NOBODY wants that!!!!!

It seems to be a common Republican shell game trying to fool their constituents into thinking they can have something for nothing. It's that conservative entitlement mentality.

Look at the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Sounded good when Bush proposed it didn't it? That was ten years ago and it hasn't made a difference. There are probably many reasons for that but primarily it has never been funded!

You know why? Because if Bush had told his supporters the Act was going to cost THEM through higher taxes they would have responded in typical conservative fashion......WHAAAAAAH!

Now we've got this bill which of course sounds good but is everyone willing to take a signifigant tax hit to fund it?

We're still carrying a massive debt for two unfunded wars in the middle-east that our last president initiated.

Has anybody ever stepped up and offered to pay that debt? NO!

Instead they enjoyed tax cuts under the Bush administration.....no sacrifice to actually SUPPORT the wars they cheered so hard for other than buying plastic magnets (made in China!) at Wal-Mart proclaiming how they "support the troops (yeah RIGHT!!!!)

What does war have to do with education you might ask? Think about it.

We could take a huge chunk out of our military budget to fund education couldn't we? It's a matter of PRIORITIES!

We will finally be on track when the day comes that schools have all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a fundraiser to buy a bomber!

[let me see]

states that are at the bottom of the education scale are loaded with minority populations or white hillbillies in West Virginia

[House of Critters]

Chaos Undercover wrote:

<quoted text>
Wish I could work just 184 days a year and still make 37 to 40k!!! That would be sweet.

So do most teachers.

[all for it]

I am all for the extra days in school for our kids living in alamogordo there is not much for them to do in the summer, so pray that this bills passes..........

[Chaos Undercover]

House of Critters wrote:

<quoted text>
So do most teachers.

Teacher work fewer hors than the average worker...by far, and yet they complain. If a teacher averaged 10 hours on those 184 days that 1840 hours a year. My mother in law who was a teacher in Alamo was making close to 50k when she quit.(That is with a masters) So with working the 1840 hours thats 27.17 per hour. Now ny mother in law did put in lots of hours, she probably did ave 10 a day for those 184 days, easy but there are many who dont. Now even if a teacher put in 2080 a year which is the ave work year that 24.03 an hour.
What does teacher in NM start out out 40k maybe a little less. Lets go with 35k, that would be 19.03 per hour for the 1840 hours...tell me how many jobs start out that high? And even if the first year teacher put in 2080 hours (which I doubt any teacher works that many hours in a year) thats still 16.83 an hour. Still a very good starting wage.
The average teacher in Wisconsin makes 51k a year. THats 27.72 an hour for 1840 hours. ITs 24.52 for 2080 hours worked. Thats more than most make on time and a half, yet they were whining about having to pay more for benefits and pension!
40k in Alamogordo is dang good money. They need to quit complaining and do their jobs.