Did the COVID crisis in school demonstrate the need for year-round schooling?

This is a hunch that came to me while I was mowing the yard, which is when most of my inspiration strikes.

One of the key arguments in fighting COVID aggressively in order to keep schools open was that schools function not only as institutions of education, but also as key drivers in our country's economic and health systems, by allowing parents to go to work and by providing meals for children, not to mention being on the lookout for signs of abuse.

Does this help make the case for year-round school, especially as a matter of equity. It's not like the jobs that pay the least give parents paid time off in the summer, so by providing schooling year round would the country not be making an aggressive move--on multiple fronts--in the fight against poverty? Summer school offerings, while robust this year, are often hit or miss in districts with many students who live in poverty, and the utilization of summer school is often quite low. So what if school was just year-round, with a few longer breaks here and there but more days in school in general? Or maybe this could somehow be an option that parents could utilize. That way, parents could work year round without having to scramble for child care in the summers or risk leaving their kids alone at home.

This is just a hunch, not an argument or a hypothesis. Happy to hear thoughts on the matter.

Submitted June 18, 2021 at 12:11PM by afowles https://ift.tt/35xIcVl