In addition to ensuring that today's generation is prepared to compete in a global economy, educators and others said there is another, more immediate, benefit from requiring students to spend more time in school.
"When you cut days out of school, I guess the question is what are students going to be doing with that time?" asked Chad Heeter, the Indianapolis-based director and editor of "Two Million Minutes," a 2008 documentary that examined lives and study habits of high school seniors in the United States, India and China. "What [time in school] does community-wide is keep kids busy and occupied and out of trouble."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, January 10, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
L.A. Unified layoff notices: An article in Thursday's Section A on educators' reactions to a proposal to cut five days of school to deal with the state budget crisis said the Los Angeles Unified School District had sent layoff notices to 2,300 teachers this week. The Board of Education will vote Tuesday on whether to send the notices.
Educators also had a more practical concern: Though Sacramento can decide to cut funding for five days of school, each of the state's 1,054 school districts would be required to renegotiate contracts with unions representing teachers and other employees, including potential pay cuts.
Joe Farley, superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District, said he renegotiated salaries when he headed a San Diego County district.
"It was extremely hard," he said. "It's something I would avoid doing again."
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the state's largest, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines said that officials expect to cut $400 million in next year's budget but that they are hamstrung until legislators approve a budget plan. This week, the district sent layoff notices to 2,300 instructors because of an anticipated shortfall this school year. Cortines implored state leaders to act quickly.
"We cannot do anything until we know what the parameters are that we have to work within," he said. "That has to come from Sacramento."
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seema.mehta@latimes.com
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Times staff writer Yvonne Villarreal contributed to this report.
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Schwarzenegger's budget bust
The governor is looking for funds in all the wrong places, Michael Hiltzik writes. BUSINESS, C1
