Arne Duncan wants your kids "Eight Days a Week"

Well the title might be a little exaggeration, but not by much. Arne Duncan wants your kids 12 hours a day and if he could, he would extend the school calendar to thirteen months.

http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/28/education-secretary-calls-for-12-hour-school-days-longer-school-years/

As the article states, "Duncan joked with attendees at a luncheon that he would like schools to stay open 13 months out of the year. But then he got serious and said, "In all seriousness, I think schools should be open 12, 13, 14 hours a day, seven days a week, 11-12 months a year".

A couple of thoughts come to mind.

• I wager the teacher unions in Missouri and other states would love to have their work hours extended to 12 hours, 11-12 months a year. Can you even begin to imagine a school district's budget with those hours clocked in by district employees?


• The time you would spend with your child would be limited and your control over your child's values would be minimal. There aren't enough hours remaining in the day to even talk with your child--that would be left up to a school employee. You wouldn't have to worry about those pesky family vacations and reunions. There's no time!

The article continues:

Duncan highlighted what he describes as a "quiet revolution" that he feels will reform the current education system. "This quiet revolution is driven by motivated parents who want better educational options for their children". Said Duncan, "They know how important education is to succeed and compete in the global economy, they insist on the very best, and they are willing to sacrifice to make it happen".

With all due respect, this must have been another part of the speech where he was joking. Do you remember when THIS Congress and THIS administration pulled voucher funding from the Washington DC council? This voucher funding allowed 1900 students to attend private and parochial schools so they wouldn't have to attend the failing public school system. It was wildly successful to these low-income families but who killed the program? The Obama administration, the Congress and the Department of Education. Read the article on what these parents said about the ending of this funding. They have been denied a "better educational option for their children".

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10008

Mr. Duncan's words are disingenuous. If he really wanted children to succeed, he would allow freedom of choice, instead of longer hours and more control. We know what this adminstration's agenda is: Control. Read the last sentence in the Daily Caller's article: "Nothing moves people as quickly as the opportunity for more funding, especially at a time like today," Duncan said. So what does he do with the DC system? He doesn't empower the parents or students, he makes the decision to pull the funding. That's control, pure and simple.

There IS a revolution going on, and it's becoming louder and louder. Parents and taxpayers do not want to give up local control of their schools, they do not want to have to pay for unfunded mandates, and they want more freedom to select the schools for their children.

Race to the Top will accomplish nothing except to feed a bureaucratic nightmare. A nightmare of 12-14 hour school days, 7 days a week, 11-12 months a year.