Sen. Barrett Calls for a Longer School Year

If Cambridge's state senator has his way, the worst nightmare of every elementary and high school student in Massachusetts will come to pass.

Two weeks ago, Sen. Michael J. Barrett '70 (D--Cambridge) proposed to Beacon Hill's Joint Committee on Education a measure to increase the school year in the state by 40 days, citing ever-widening gaps in standardized test scores between American students and their international peers. This educational lag, Barrett says, spells trouble for the future of the economy.

Students in this country are not equipped to effectively compete with their foreign counterparts in an increasingly global economy, and a 220-day school year is part of the answer to the problem, Barrett says.

"We have to plan for the future now," Barrett says. "I'm being pragmatic. Massachusetts must act or face a series of recessions."

According to Barrett, Massachusetts ranks a dismal 46th out of 50 states in aid provided to communities from the state government.

"We have always been abominable in supporting local public schools. In terms of excellence below the college level, Massachusetts is living an illusion."

Parental Pressure

Barrett says that the greatest resistance to the bill so far comes from parents who are overly complacent about the quality of education their children are receiving.

But according to Joann Ackman, the parent liaison at Cambridge's only high school, the Rindge and Latin School, parental opposition that may exist may be based on monetary considerations. Many students cannot afford to go to school during the summer months because they must take jobs to help support their financially pressed families, she says.

Teacher Troubles

But according to Lester C. Thurow, dean of MIT's Sloan School, and a vocal proponent of this type of educational reform, the principal opposition this time comes from the teachers themselves. Teachers reluctant to forego a long summer break are hiding behind an argument for quality instead of quantity, he says.

Margarita Otero-Alvarez, principal of the Longfellow Elementary School in Cambridge says she agrees to some extent. Many teachers are opposed to the measure because they have always planned to have their summers free, she says. "In general, I get a negative response [from the staff]," she says.

But Otero-Alvarez adds that resistance to the measure stems more from lack of information than anything else since the bill is still in its early stages and has yet to be discussed fully be either the State House or Senate.

Marie Orbin of the Cambridge Teacher's Association also voices apprehension about the bill. There are other more pressing areas of education that need attention, she says. "We should beef up the programs we have now...there are other problems like money and the state of buildings," she says.

"Fiscal constraints would probably delay implementation," she adds.

But according to Thurow and Barrett, what is at issue is the long-term competitiveness of the United States, and not the financial strains of the current year.

"If you have a global economy, you must have the skills or work for wages lower than the Koreans," he says. Thurow says that real wages for nonsupervisory workers, who account for two-thirds of the total workforce, have decreased 12 percent since 1973 and continue to do so at the rate of one percent per year.

"The real question is whether you want to go back to being prosperous," he says.

In a Gallup Poll taken in 1959 on the subject, more than two-thirds of Massachussetts residents opposed extending the school year. Barrett said the tide is beginning to change now and that in 1989 Gallup showed that more people were partical to the additional days than were opposed to them.

Currently, Japanese students go to school 243 days each year, West German students approximately 230, the Soviet Union's 211 and Swaziland's 191, in comparison to the U.S's 180 days is shameful, Barrett says.