Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schools

For parents, educators and students alike, the issue of year-round schooling is one that seems to invoke a passionate response from people on both sides of the fence. For some people, the traditional summer vacations should continue, while others feel year-round schooling gives kids a competitive advantage over their peers.

When examing the issue objectively, it seems both sides might have a legitimate case, as the following pros and cons of year-round education make a solid case for both points of view.

• Kids in year-round schools are at an academic advantage. A Duke University study found that kids in year-round schools are less likely to forget what they've learned because they don't experience the long break that occurs during summer vacations with traditional schools. That's a sentiment echoed by Charles Ballinger, executive director emeritus of the National Association for Year-Round Education. "The longer students are away from material, the more forgetting occurs," Ballinger says.

• Kids spend the same amount of time in the classroom, just on a different schedule. When many people hear "year-round schooling" they understandably assume kids will be spending more time in the classroom. In fact, many year-round schools have the same 180 days of schooling as their tradtional counterparts, they just have shorter, more frequent breaks. This schedule, proponents of year-round schools suggest, helps to keep the education process ongoing, unlike traditional systems wherein students must reacclimate themselves to school after long breaks.

• What about child care? Parents opposing year-round schools often cite the potential difficulty finding child care should their school system were to make the switch. Traditional summer vacations enable parents to use college students also on summer hiatus to look after their children, or send the kids off to day camp. Shorter breaks during fall and spring offer no such luxury, making it difficult, particularly for single parents, to find adequate child care.

• Aren't kids busy enough as it is? Opponents of year-round schools also suggest kids today, who tend to be involved in more extracurriculars than their parents ever were, are busy enough and need the traditional summer break to relax and regroup.

To learn more about the issue, visit www.nayre.org.