Resolved: Year Round School Is Good

Year round school is a more "balanced" calendar that has more frequent but shorter breaks throughout the school year, and a shorter summer break. Many people think year round school means more school, but that is not true. Year round school has the same 180 days of school as a traditional calendar. The most popular year round school schedule is a 45-15 track: nine weeks(45 days) of school, followed by a three week(15 day) break. The first six states to implement year-round school were Illinois, Ohio, New York, Michigan, and also Washington D.C. Now, there are forty-six states, but states are constantly dropping out, and only about 5-10 states have a majority of schools year round. Lots of school districts have tried, but it just didn"t work out for them. There are many reasons why. Year round school is bad because there are higher costs for a school to stay open year round compared with only about nine months. Since the school is open longer, many people such as administrative staff and custodial staff get paid more and other costs such as AC or heater costs will be bigger. Other costs include maintenance and transportation costs. All of these costs together can increase the total cost of running a school by up to ten percent. Year round school has a negative effect on families. First of all, parents who need childcare after school have to ask for babysitting at an irregular interval. For example, in a traditional school year, parents can just ask for a babysitter the whole year. But with year round school, parents have to find a babysitter for these seven weeks, then these nine weeks, then these eight weeks, etc, which will make it harder and more frustrating. Second of all, high school students will not be able to take summer jobs because of the shortened summer break, usually just a month. Youth summer camps will also be affected. Lastly, year round school can mess up sports schedules. It is hard to organize sports when you have a break every three or four weeks. Year round school is disruptive to kids and teachers. For example, if kids are studying for a test, then all of a sudden comes a three week break, teachers will most likely need to review more after the break because most kids will forget some of what they learned. Also, it can be hard for some students to have nine weeks of school, then have a three week break, then nine more weeks of school, then another three week break, etc. It disrupts the learning flow for some kids. Moreover, teachers will have to do extra work in packing up everything in the classroom every nine weeks and then setting it back up three weeks later. Students will forget information whenever you give them a break, no matter if it is a three week break or a twelve week break. Therefore, teachers will have to review material after every three week break. Since there are four long breaks in a year round school, compared to only one long break in an traditional schooling system, there will four times as much review! Students will learn less because of the extra time spent reviewing forgotten material. Some schools thought that year round school would help academically. Some scientists hypothesized that since the summer break was shorter, the students forgot less over the break and so students would do better in school. However, a recent study from Duke University showed that there is no academic difference between kids that attend year round school and kids that attend traditional school. Other schools are on a year-round school system because the school is small and they can"t teach so many kids at once. If that is the case, the school uses a multi-track system, where 3-5 sets of students go to school at different times. But all the students get the same 180 days of school. The disadvantage of this is that if two siblings are on different tracks, then scheduling babysitting would be much harder than it is already with single-track year round school. You would have to schedule babysitting for almost the whole year, instead of just 180 days. Also, if your friend is in Track A and you are in Track B, you will only get to see your friend a couple times each year. In conclusion, year round school is bad, even though it has some benefits such as being able to teach more students. However, as mentioned before, there are many disadvantages that outweigh the benefits. Lastly, I would much rather enjoy time in the sun playing outside in the long summer break with my friends than be stuck inside hiding from the cold for the short breaks that occur in October and January. It is much more fun out in the sun!