I'm all for more education spending, and I do think it seems like Oklahoma's education budget is in crisis, I'm not convinced that this particular approach (fou

I'm all for more education spending, and I do think it seems like Oklahoma's education budget is in crisis, I'm not convinced that this particular approach (four day weeks) is actually problematic on an educational performance level. As mentioned briefly in the article, studies either haven't found significant negative effects [1] or have found that four-day school weeks (with a corresponding lengthening of the school day as found in this case) are associated with a weak positive effect on academic performance (at least in rural regions) [1]. There's less context switching with longer periods, attendance improves moderately and having the extra day off results in less cognitive fatigue over time. The article does mention Tim Tharp's dissertation that suggests that over time this effect drops off and performance may decline [3]. Concerning purely educational performance, money saved with this program may be spent better on retaining teachers and retaining elective and extra-curricular programs. That said, I do think there is an important concern about the increased burden on low income families -- both in terms of child-care costs and food. The article mentions the one district that arranged "low-cost" child care on fridays for $30/child/week, but for a two-child household that corresponds to an extra $240-$300 per month. For low income families that may be 10% or more of household income. Indeed the cost of their "low-cost" childcare is a bit fishy. The article mentions that the Newcastle school district has an enrollment of about 2300 students, and save $110,000 per year by switching to four-day weeks -- Around $48 per student per year. Yet they charge $30 per student per week for childcare on Fridays. How is that cost being justified? [1] http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ987605.pdf http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ987605.pdf [2] http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/EDFP_a_00165 http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/full/10.1162/EDFP_a_0016... [3] http://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/10780/ http://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/10780/ -- Worth noting perhaps that this is a dissertation, and the corresponding research has never been published in a peer-reviewed venue. Not to say its flawed, but it hasn't necessarily undergone a close methodological review (Disclaimer: Not an education expert. I just went hunting for articles discussing academic effects out of curiosity. Would love to hear from those that know more about the subject.)