Tom Fudge: In March of this year, lawmakers in Sacramento responded to a sobering report out of Stanford University on the state of California education. The report was actually 22 reports, totaling more than a thousand pages. But the upshot was that public education in our state is a mess and in dire need of resources and reform.
There are many ways the system could be reformed. One of the fundamental changes that could take place is one we've known about for quite a while: year-round school. Supporters of year-round school use the expression "school calendar reform." They say the system that's still predominant, based on a three-month summer vacation, is an anachronism. They say it was established generations ago to provide child labor, not to serve education.
Guest
- Charles Ballinger, executive director emeritus of the National Association for Year-Round Education . He's co-author of the book, School Calendar Reform: Learning in all Seasons.
