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Art and music aren't core, like the three R's.

Agree 100% (it is possible!)

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How are you going to increase the school day when you can't even support core programs. We already have art on a cart and music being cut.

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You're wrong, especially that 65% of Jersey City schools cost is borne by the State, not local taxpayers. If the longer hours/days ever happens it's likely JC taxpayers will benefit even more from suburban taxpayers than they do now.

Forgot to mention that I am support staff. If I were a classroom teacher, I would have quit. God bless what they do.

As a parent of two school-aged children and a veteran teacher who currently works in a school with an extended day, I disagree with Chistie?s proposal. People on this list and Christie himself will probably say that I disagree because I am a lazy, selfish person who is spoiled by ?teacher?s hours?. Of course teachers appreciate getting early, usually so they can catch up on paperwork, but this is not the reason that this teacher opposed an extended school day. I?m against it because I see how terrible it is for children.
My school day ends at 4:15 and, in general, my students are an exhausted, neurotic, miserable mess. Today?s students are under way too much pressure to perform by teachers who are equally pressured and to keep them in school for more time makes it worse. Every teacher on my school?s staff knows that the kids check out by 2:00. Every day at three o?clock I come that much closer to burnout when I have to go against every nurturing bone in my body and force five-year-olds to sit up straight and learn to read and write. At times I have put paper towels on my rug to let a kindergarten student sleep. I would probably get in trouble but I find it abusive to force an exhausted child to try to pay attention to a lesson. There are those who would respond to this and tell me that I have to be more creative in my teaching and engage the students and make my classes a big game. However, those people have not walked in my shoes and do not understand the pressure that I am under to have my students meet the objectives thrust upon me and my students by NCLB (No Child Left Behind) and the Common Core State Standards. They have also probably never heard of a pacing chart or probably have never seen the new lesson plan formats which force me to treat my students like robots.
And then the kids come home and do homework?.way too much homework. In my school, the lucky students get home by 4:45, but the ones who take the bus may get home by 5:30. They have a minimum of an hour?s worth of homework. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children between the ages of 5 to 12 get 11 to 12 hours of sleep a night. How is a child supposed to eat dinner, spend time with his parents, read for pleasure, and God forbid actually go to the park and then get into bed by 8:00?
Folks, please know that the politicians are killing childhood. NCLB, CCSS and the likes of Christie have no idea what their policies are doing? I have just ordered dozens of stress balls to give to my students because half of them are biting the skin off their fingers. My daughters are miserable because of school stress as well. Every well-respected educator in history has talked about educating the whole child. Why have the politicians thrown this out the window? If it?s to keep up with the Chinese and remain on top, then they can have it because I don?t want to teach, parent, or live in a country whose educational system is abusive to kids. And if people like Chris Christie have their way, that?s what it will become.
If anyone knows a young person who is majoring in education, my advice is to tell them to switch their major to psychology. We are going to have a lot of messed-up, neurotic people on our hands in ten years in need of a good shrink.

great idea..but how is christie going to pay for all this? it is the counties that pay for schools. just keeping kids in school longer is not going to solve any problems.

christie imo is a fraud or close to it..the emperor has no clothes. idiot democrats will run after any bone that christie tosses them! bi-partisan my bedonkadont

Does no one see the humor in this? Yeah, it's a good idea, but Christie is reading along with us and thought he'd throw Fulop (#1 on his hit list) a hanging slider. Your move, Steve.

I have to give Christie a +1 for existential humor.

The state is going bankrupt, but let's spend more money.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... grew_by_6b_in_fiscal.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/nyr ... eInSection&pgtype=article

my hero!

I am no Christie fan, but I love this idea and I don't even have children. I think most parents will be open to this idea. The reasons why America?s students enjoy around two months off every summer probably aren't? based on some archaic, farm-based education schedule, as many people believe. Its the money, yea that's right the money.

is the state or county going to pay for this? surely, he doesn't expect teachers to work extra hours for nada

Star-Ledger Editorial Board

t's not likely to distract anybody from Bridgegate. But Gov. Chris Christie's broad-stroke idea to extend our school year and school days, announced this afternoon, is worth its own moment in the sun.

He's far from the first to latch on to this idea, trumpeted in his fourth State of the State address today. It's being done already at high-performing charter schools, to great success, and in Newark district schools by Superintendent Cami Anderson.

There's plenty of evidence to suggest it's a worthy reform. Spending more time on task leads to better outcomes for disadvantaged kids, who particularly suffer from summer learning loss. And what sense does it make to base our school year on the agrarian calendar, a relic of the days when kids were needed to till the fields?

Yet what the governor gave us today was a proposal with no particulars. A longer school day and year can take on many different forms -- it's not just tacking on an extra period to a classroom schedule. It could mean tutoring after school. And it's not only about extending hours: The quality of the instruction is key.

There are also significant practical obstacles, the biggest of which is cost. Considering the restrictions on state aid to schools, the governor's tax cap and the difficulties of trying to rewrite teacher contracts, how do districts implement this grand vision?

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