Plan to extend the school day advances on Beacon Hill
The Lowell Sun
Erik Arvidson
March 7, 2006
BOSTON -- School districts in Massachusetts would be able to tack on 30 percent more time to the school day to boost instruction of core subjects under legislation now heads to the House and Senate.
State lawmakers want to establish a grant program at the state Department of Education that would help school districts pay for extending the school day or school year to beef up instruction in mathematics, English and science.
About 37 school districts across the state, including Lowell, have already applied for state funding to lengthen the school day or year from the current six hours per day, 180-day per year schedule.
That schedule, according to the bill's proponents, made more sense centuries ago when many school children were needed at home part of the day to help on the farm.
"It's a model that grew out of the agrarian period when they had to let children go home early to harvest the crops," said Paul Reville, president of the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. "Now we have about 2 percent of the population engaged in agriculture, and most of our school children have parents who are not home during the school day."
The Legislature's Education Committee yesterday gave the bill a favorable recommendation, and it now heads to the House and Senate for consideration.
"We've really engaged districts. We've asked them to plan, and now I think it's time for the Legislature to come up with the money and fund this proposal," said State Sen. Robert Antonioni, D-Leominster. "This is a great opportunity for us to add some real substance to many of the programs that exist in our public schools now."
Lengthening the school day has proven to be controversial in some communities.
In January, the teachers' union in Leominster overwhelmingly shot down a proposal to extend the school day by two hours for some of the students in the city's three elementary schools.
Parents in some communities are also opposed, saying students would lose time at home with their families or playing with their friends.
Antonioni said he has found that teachers in many school districts support the concept of adding on instruction time to the school day. Any change in the school day or calendar requires the teachers union to accept a change in their collective bargaining agreement.
Teachers would not be mandated to participate in the program, but those who did would have to be rewarded with additional pay, Antonioni said.
Both the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers favored the proposal at a Statehouse hearing.
"Our experience has been that lots of times it's the parents that have a problem with it," said Michael Canavan, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Federation of Teachers. "Teachers sometimes may have issues if they have other jobs."
Antonioni said that Gov. Mitt Romney's fiscal 2007 budget proposed setting aside $15 million for a pilot program to lengthen school days. He said he hoped the Legislature would approve as much as $20 million for the program.
Of the 37 districts which have applied to the DOE for grants to lengthen school time, 85 percent wanted to add more math instruction, all would add student enrichment programs, and nearly all planned to add professional development, according to Antonioni.
