LAUSD Proposal to Extend School Year

RANDY YANG (Opinions Editor)

On Monday, Jan. 10, the LAUSD issued a proposal to extend the school year into the summer by an additional ten days in order to make up for the inadequacies of distance learning for the 2021-2022 school year. These extra ten days would be used to retouch on reading and math skills as well as address mental health concerns of students which is redundant and will only do more harm than good. 

It is no surprise that the mental health decline of many kids and teenagers during the pandemic is at least partially linked to academics. The simple act of even waking up for school every morning in and of itself is a large inconvenience for many students, which only continues on throughout the day during the monotony of their classes. Adding in an extra ten days of school during the summer, a time where students are finally given a break from the arduous school year, would not serve to improve the mental health of students.

Along with mental health concerns, schools plan to address the supposed academic regression faced during the lockdown over these additional ten days, which is completely unnecessary. The 180 days that are already in the school year are more than enough to address these concerns of academic regression. Furthermore, the act of adding in more school days will simply be counterintuitive as the more school days there are, the more burned out students will be. This will result in loss of attention span and overall interest, resulting in the opposite desired outcome. 

The idea of adding in an additional ten school days during the summer is a completely redundant and counterintuitive idea. Students who are already bombarded with stress and labour from the original 180 school days should not have to force themselves through an additional ten days during the time that they should be spending on themselves.