To me, government fixing something is like the times I used to bang my old Black and White TV (Wow! Do they even make those anymore?) in a futile effort to get a decent signal. The only thing my banging did was to accelerate the death spiral of that poor television set. And get this, when it finially broke–blame the Japanese, not the person who was doing all the banging in the first place. Sure the TV sets were at times sub-standard. But did we really think that we were fixing them by banging them?

President Obama has now taken “banging old TV sets” to a whole ‘nother level. Instead of TV sets, he is proposing the idea that if we just keep children in schools a little bit longer that test scores will miraculously rise from the ashes of failure. Not just failure, DECADES of failure.

If you think it was hard getting quality teachers in urban public schools now, try telling them that they are going to have to spend most of their summers locked in a hot classroom with kids who don’t want to be there.

Former journalist and Obama supporter Billee Bussard recently wrote the President on his idea that longer school hours are the key to success. She has spent years studying this entire issue and her website is chock full of her research. Here is what she had to say to the President back in March of this year.

To: President Barack Obama and his education advisors

From: A Big FAN of yours who is losing confidence over your school reform proposal

The Year-Round School Calendar Has Failed To Pass The Test For 100 Years

As a Florida Democratic Party activist, as one who contributed much time and as much money as I could afford to the Obama campaign, and as an expert on school calendar issues (I have been studying this since 1992 and am about to finish a book on the subject), I IMPLORE President Obama to re-examine his support for a year-round school calendar.

As one who has spoken to literally thousands of parents from hundreds of communities across this nation who fought tooth and nail against school calendar tinkering, I can tell you this is a “Third Rail” issue for politicians AND WILL COST THE PRESIDENT DEARLY IN PUBLIC SUPPORT.

Parents and teachers go to war over this issue like nothing else I have observed in my 25-plus years as a journalist (I am now retired and devote my spare time to doing communications for the Duval County, FL, Democratic Party–the county that helped clinch Florida’s electoral votes).

I would be honored to send the President and his advisors a 52-page paper I presented to the Florida Political Science Association in 2003, when then-Gov. Jeb Bush was threatening year-round school. The paper outlines the failed history of school calendar change as an education reform approach.

Whoever is advising the President on calendar change as a school reform approach has failed to do the homework. It is an idea that has been tried and failed for more than 100 years. A partial list of those places can be found on The REJECT LIST page of my website, www.SummerMatters.com, a website I launched to share a portion of my research. The website get thousands of hits each week.

Whoever told the President the traditional school calendar is an agrarian calendar didn’t do the homework, either. In fact, a year-round calendar is more like the agrarian calendar, according to scholarly studies of school calendars, which I discuss in my paper. I also point out the high costs for school districts in utility costs to air condition buildings—no small item in this age of unpredictable energy costs.

Four years ago, I had to shelve the book I was writing on this subject to care for various family members who took ill. Sadly, I now have time to finish the book because on December 22, I lost my husband of 41 years, who was also a longtime journalist and a dedicated Democrat.

What disgusts me most in this study of the year-round school calendar is federal funds designated for school improvement have been tapped by a clever cabal of consultants who have literally raked in millions over the last decade selling this idea to school districts. School calendar change as an education improvement approach may be the biggest education boondoggle of the last two decades.

Opposing school calendar change, on the other hand, is a costly enterprise. It costs me hundreds of dollars every year to maintain my website. I am not a consultant, just a concerned citizen.

I fear this issue could be something of an Achilles Heel for President Obama. Families draw the line in their support for school administrators and politicians when they try to steal the best months of the year for family time and learning experiences outside school walls.

Certainly, the President’s embrace of the year-round school calendar has caused me to wonder about the other advisors who surround him and shaken my confidence in his administration. None of his advisors could possibly have spent as much time as I have examining this issue. I doubt any have a 40-foot wall of research to back their support FOR calendar change as I have to back my argument AGAINST a year-round school calendar.

Please restore my confidence by at least requesting in a reply to this note that I e-mail you a copy of my research paper and by spending some time looking at some of my research posted at www.SummerMatters.com. I would also be happy to e-mail some of the chapters from my forthcoming book.

Please do me the favor of defusing the possibility of making that book a best-seller by admitting President Obama made a mistake in supporting the idea of a year-round school calendar.

At this link, Bussard lays out school after school that has tried this and failed to see the results Obama is promising. Just check out her entire site.

http://www.summermatters.com.

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