As public education shifts into a new era, contradictions are bound to emerge.
A new survey released this week reveals one: Families and teachers seem to want less schooling. The survey from Prodigy Education found a majority of parents and four in five teachers favored a shorter school week.
This jibes with findings from Ed Choice and Morning Consult, which have repeatedly found most parents want their kids at home one day or more during the school week. It may also help explain the exploding demand for hybrid schools that blend classroom and out-of-classroom learning throughout the week.
But it flies in the face of what many families experienced during the pandemic, when school closures created hardship, fueled learning losses and even drove a short-term unemployment spike among working parents, especially moms. And the research on four-day school weeks is definitive: They hurt student learning. The harms get worse over time. Shorter workweeks even backfire as a teacher retention tool, increasing turnover.
Families and teachers seem to be looking at one-size-fits-all schooling and saying, “give me less of that.” But merely giving them less, in existing school systems, doesn’t typically go well.
As Justin Dent of Outschool.org suggests in a new essay published by 50CAN, the interesting question is: what do they want more of?
Parents want creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving to be central to their children’s education. These qualities aren’t confined to the classroom; they’re cultivated in the kinds of out-of-school experiences that help students explore, build, and grow on their own terms.
Some of the most intriguing schools and learning environments respond to this demand. They take the life-changing learning experiences students often find on the periphery of typical schools — from sailing trips to math competitions to carpentry — and ask: why not make the whole school out of that? Done right, the result is often something teachers and students are excited to show up for.
In other words, the resolution to the paradox may not be more or less, but different. Give educators the flexibility to intentionally design learning experiences that meet their visions. Know that they might look nothing like a conventional school or adhere to a conventional school schedule. Give families the freedom to choose among these options to find the ones that work for them. Build connective tissue so families can navigate their options and assemble a coherent program tailored to each individual child.
Bigger in Texas?
The Texas Senate passed a top priority of Gov. Greg Abbott, creating a universal education savings account program. This is an opening bid for talks with the House, which is expected to pass its own measure after years to thwarting similar efforts.
SB 2 would:
- Create the largest first-year K-12 scholarship program in U.S. history, serving approximately 100,000 students for $1 billion.
- Fund students differently depending on which options they chose. Homeschoolers who switch to scholarships and don’t enroll in school full-time could get $2,000 per student, or $2,500 per student with disabilities. Students attending accredited private schools could receive $10,000, or $11,500 if they have disabilities.
- Be open to all students. If demand for scholarships exceeded supply, a lottery would prioritize 80% of the scholarships for students with disabilities or those with incomes below 500% of the federal poverty level.
- Divide administration among multiple organizations. Up to five “educational assistance organizations” selected by the state comptroller could manage scholarship applications, payments for eligible education expenses, guidance and support for families, or a combination thereof.
A legislative fiscal analysis anticipates the program quadrupling in size by 2030. The logic and assumptions make interesting reading for anyone trying to understand the fiscal impact and growth potential of large-scale K-12 scholarship programs.
In Brief
Tennessee is poised to be the first state to enact a universal K-12 scholarship program in 2025, passing legislation that would offer education savings accounts to 20,000 students.
Americans are more pessimistic about the state of public education than about crime, immigration, abortion, the cost of health care, or federal taxes, according to a brutal new Gallup survey.
A new analysis finds homeschooling participation remains higher than before the pandemic in most states where data are available. More here.
President Trump wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and repurpose existing federal programs to support family-directed funding. The real action will start later this spring, when an executive order expects federal agencies to return reports on the feasibility of expanding education options for military families and other students under federal purview, and when Congress may advance legislation to create federal tax credits for K-12 education scholarships.
Twelve education chiefs from conservative-leaning states, including Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, are calling on the Trump Administration to give states more flexibility in how they use federal funds.
A Florida superintendent offers an antidote to the malaise gripping much of public education: “I believe in homework. I believe in deadlines. And I believe our kids are capable.”
