I taught under a four-day week from 2002 - 2007 in Orofino and left there because I wanted a better education for my children who were still in school. Of course, it's great as an employee to have a three-day weekend every week, however, I felt the students I was teaching at the high school and my own children were suffering for several reasons. 1. You cannot cover the same amount of curriculum under a four-day week. Our classes were longer by 30 minutes a day only. That didn't replace the full day of school we were missing. 2. Young children only have so much of an attention span for the day. My elementary age students were burned out after a school day that ran from 8 - 4. 3. Students needed to review more each Monday after being out of class for three days. 4. Although some students had jobs or worked on that fifth day of the week, most students didn't. This left many young people home alone or unsupervised because parents were working. 5. There was no time to get into the curriculum with more critical thinking activities because the schedule didn't allow for that. When many education systems around the world are actually adding more schooling for children, why are we even considering cutting ours?

(Karen Moss:
I want to apologize for any trouble I've caused you. At the time, I was frustrated by your political views, and said some things that I shouldn't have. I respect you, your opinion/argument, and your personal experiences as they contribute to the discussion.)

Students have to go to school for a certain amount of days in a school year to graduate. If you made the weeks a "four day week" instead of the five, not only would the school day end up being longer, but the kids would have less holidays because all those days that are missed will have to be made up sometime in the year, making a longer school year in general.

i am a student and in a 4 day week we would still get burned out because they would be longer days so it would not be a "plus for the children"

This is insane. Point 1 - "more time with families". How many families do you know where parents work 4 day work weeks? "Remind parents that the schools' purpose is not free babysitting". True, but please let parents in families where both parents work also know that their Friday paycheck will now be used to pay for their child's Friday off. " travel advantages - for the perfect situation where Mom and Dad have a three day weekend as well, and have the disposable income to travel throughout Idaho...

People would only travel if they don't have to work Fridays. Inkom uses a 4 day week to cut down on transportation costs. Education will only get better when parents take an active role in the education of their children.

Turn the schools over to the private sector and not only see the increase in scores but also the economy will be helped and the state will lose a budget item..

I think Bonners Ferry and Orofino have a 4 day week.