No School for 5 Days = $1 Billion Savings for California

1. Barm
   January 10th, 2009 at 12:58 am

   Just cancel school altogether and put them to work in the spaghetti mines.

2. AJ
   January 10th, 2009 at 1:20 am

   Kids are already not in school enough, and when they are, they are "taught to the test" due to the colossal failure known as No Child Left Behind.

   Tom Chapin says it best:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dAujuqCo7s

   Second, this is a tax on parents and a drain on the workforce... parents take vacations to be with their kids as work productivity wanes or they pay for an extra week of summer childcare... and employers deepen their bias against hiring parents.

   Third, don't forget the fate of kids who are afraid of dark confined spaces. The meatball factory seems like a reasonable alternative until they bring that stench home with them. Within two weeks the whole family has gone vegetarian in hopes junior will get moved to the saucing plant where he can bathe in the tomato sauce vat every day.

3. Nathan Miller
   January 10th, 2009 at 1:41 am

   This is great!

   Assuming of course that curriculum will remain the same length, teachers will have to control classes, if only slightly more, and children will have to learn at a rate that could be perceived closer to 'normal.'

   If it works, Arnold can add another victory to his list.

4. Geekazoid
   January 10th, 2009 at 2:09 am

   Wow 5 days, seeing how sorry our school systems are, what difference does it make whether it's 5 days or the whole school year, they still aren't learning anything.

5. SenorMysterioso
   January 10th, 2009 at 2:45 am

   I think it is kind of sad. I know money is not the solution to our educational system but I would much rather they spent an extra $1billion on schools than using them as a cost cutting measure. I do not think this is fair to kids.

6. Lars
   January 10th, 2009 at 3:05 am

   Public schools currently have longer terms than private schools, which not only have more vacations but also provide an arguably better education. Maybe trimming an hour a day would be a good idea as well. That would allow kids to get afternoon jobs, which would also help the economy. Schools are terribly inefficient organizations with a tremendous amount of waste.

7. Jono
   January 10th, 2009 at 3:35 am

   What a horrible idea. Where do the kids go for that week? When this budget problem comes up again, whose to say the next time we won't shave off a whole month to make ends meet? Arnold, go back to the drawing board, this is not an acceptable response.

8. Jenny
   January 10th, 2009 at 6:44 am

   my econ teacher talked about this today
   this takes over four thousand dollars out of each teachers yearly sallary

9. SenorMysterioso
   January 10th, 2009 at 6:56 am

   California teachers make $4k+ a week?! I find that hard to believe but if its true, it's time I think about adding a teaching certificate to my degree

10. Allison
    January 10th, 2009 at 6:59 am

    Myself, friends and family who all attended (and are attending) public schools in California have often complained of how slow-paced the classes are.

    I can appreciate trying to teach to the lowest of the students, I can. You want to see success as a teacher....especially as it reflects back on you. But there are some people who just don't care about learning or passing. Taking a week off and having to cram more teaching in will not harm the students who pay even half attention.

    Teachers in California also make plenty of money....especially considering how poorly educated people end up out of school

    I would LOVE to have a moderately paid job with 3+ months of vacation, weekends off and no chances of being responsible if the product of my work fails. (Once I get tenure, that is.)

11. ted
    January 10th, 2009 at 8:12 am

    "Myself" is not the subject of a sentence, Allison. Perhaps you needed an extra five days.

12. Darragh
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:06 am

    How about 3,500 days off and save $700 Billion? Although it's a tad depriving, it is a good idea.

13. LisaL
    January 10th, 2009 at 10:55 am

    As others have said, our school system is crap anyway, so 5 days off isn't really going to make much of a difference.

    The schools here plan on cutting the arts, PE, and a few other things to save money.
    It's just a sad sad time we live in atm.

14. sw
    January 10th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    when i was a kid, the last week of school was used for eating cupcakes and cleaning out your locker. a lot of families didn't even send their kids.

    cancel detention, which is a waste of students' and teachers' time and accomplishes nothing, and save an hour every day. do away with those pointless half days throughout the year too. make all remaining school hours productive, and you'll lose nothing and save money.

15. sw
    January 10th, 2009 at 11:37 am

    while they're at it, how about closing the government for five days too? the week between xmas and new years is not terribly productive.

16. Jen Diggity
    January 10th, 2009 at 11:52 am

    We have schools here in the Inland Empire of California in which the children of illegal immigrants make up a HUGE percentage of the student population. When you have non-citizens using services paid for by citizens on SUCH a grand scale as we've got going the system doesn't work. There's just enough dough to cover everyone. When we fix our illegal alien problem in California we will fix many, many other problems like school funding (and traffic).

17. Taylor
    January 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm

    sw-
    They're already planning on closing a lot of government facilities for a few days each month. I've completely lost the details on this, though.

18. Jenny
    January 10th, 2009 at 6:02 pm

    SenorMysterioso- i said yearly salary, not weekly...

19. DOJ
    January 10th, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    @Jenny - if they work one less week and get paid $4000 less, then they are getting $4000 per week worked

    I think you should double check the facts with you econ teacher

20. Kudu
    January 11th, 2009 at 12:49 am

    Why don't we just go for broke and do 45 days, this will bring the State back in the black.

21. MoonCake
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:48 am

    what i find most appalling is that the people who make decisions for us take such the easy-way-out of things like this.

    this is where true conservatism should swoop in. this is not a political thing; this is a way-of-life thing. it is not good for a failing economy to promote right before reason.

    one MAJOR way everyone everywhere could cut costs is to turn off the lights when the doors close. how many places do you pass by every single day that is closed but every single light is on both in and outside the building? entire cities stay lit throughout the night to display their little signs to advertise, but how much money is it wasting to keep that neon sign lit 24/7? and you know what, it wouldn't cost anyone a DIME to save that much energy, as opposed to forcing everyone into energy-saving appliances that don't teach YOU THE CONSUMER to be energy-saving yourself.

    i have a great example. i am currently working in my radio station and every single light is on in the building.. it's sunday morning. i bet more than half the sales department computers are still on. the bathroom lights are on. vending machines are humming. the coffee room across the building from everthing is in full operation... all for me, the tv operator, the security guard, and my news anchor. there are a whole FOUR PEOPLE in the building, but everything is on as if it were another business day. i know for an absolute fact that we are not the only building wasting this much energy. and though we could easily be saving a few hundred bucks (maybe even thousands.. i'm not sure what their electric bills are like at a tv/radio station...) per month on electricity they are raising the prices of our coffee in order to compensate for this economy. i'm not complaining that the prices of coffee are going up by fifty-cents, i'm complaining that THE MONEY IS THERE AND NOBODY IS DOING ANYTHING TO KEEP IT IN THE POCKETS OF THOSE WHO EARNED IT. i know california is a huge commercial state, imagine all the lights that could be turned out at night and then imagine the money that could be saved without having to cut school curriculums that are obviously failing as-is anyway.

    poor planning makes for pathetic politics. where are the TRUE conservatives?

22. inkedgal
    January 11th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

    Length of the School Year in Various Nations:

    China: 251 Days
    Japan: 243 Days
    Germany: 226 Days
    Italy: 216 Days
    England: 196 Days
    USA: 180 Days
    (Harvard Business Review 10/03; Cox News Service 8/6/04)

23. Anon
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    I don't have kids, so this works just fine for me.
    I still get annoyed about how our society works.
    I don't have kids... but I have to pay for all of yours via my taxes. Freakin parasites... Why am I paying child support for babies I didn't make?

24. Staxeon
    January 11th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    Jenny - "my econ teacher talked about this today
    this takes over four thousand dollars out of each teachers yearly sallary"
    and
    "SenorMysterioso- i said yearly salary, not weekly"

    Uhhh....yeah. If they closed school for 5 days, they'd be missing one business week of pay/work. If they then lost over four thousand dollars of salary, your economy teacher is inferring they make over four thousand dollars per week.

    Given the average school year (minus vacations) is only about 40 weeks apparently you're econ teacher is pulling down $160,000 / year. Plus the whole summer off. I'm with SenorMysterioso, we should be going for teaching certs.

    Either that or your econ teacher should present himself to your bio teacher, cuz I'm sure his talking rectum would fascinate him.

25. amidala
    January 14th, 2009 at 12:18 am

    As an added bonus, the intelligence level of the average California student would go up!

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