News and Information for Gloucester and Mathews, VA | Thursday, April 19, 2018 Vol. LXXXI, no. 16 NEW SERIES
subscriber/user login


  • Home
  • About
    • Subscribe
    • Log in
    • Place a Notice
    • Contact Us
  • News
    • Gloucester
    • Mathews
    • Business News
    • Opinion
    • Schools
    • Sports
    • Food
    • Weekly Church Listings
    • Order Hometown Albums
    • Church News
    • Events
    • Arts
    • Pets
    • Days Past
    • Community
    • Public Record
    • Special Events
  • Obits
  • Classifieds
    • Classified Ads
    • Real Estate Ads
    • Place an Ad
  • Real Estate
  • Store
    • Subscribe
    • Find Your Ancestors
    • Order Hometown Albums
    • Placemats
  • Log in
Home » Opinion

Letter: Cutting school year a disastrously bad idea

Posted on Dec 29, 2010 - 03:50 PM Printer Friendly View

Editor, Gazette Journal:

"Education is alive and well" Assistant Superintendent John Hutchinson told the School Board Tuesday, according to the Gazette-Journal’s Kim Robins (Dec. 16 issue).

The effect of reducing the school year from 180 days to 160 days is saving 100 gallons of diesel fuel a day and the cafeteria is still profitable!

Japanese school children are in school 240 days a year, 80 days more than Gloucester’s children. Sixteen percent of Japanese 15-year-olds are proficient in advanced math compared to only 6 percent of Virginia’s children.

The question is not how much diesel fuel the school system saves, but how many Gloucester children get into good colleges and universities. Amanda Ripley makes a dramatic graphic display of how our children rank in the December 2010 issue of The Atlantic magazine: Virginia ranks 34th from the top (Taiwan) in advanced level math.

University of Chicago economist R. G. Rajan ranks poor education as one of the main causes of the much discussed income inequality that is dividing our nation (Fault Lines. Princeton Univ. Press, 2010.)

Cutting the school year is a disastrously bad idea.

John C. Partin, M.D.

Gloucester, Va.

More:
  • Letter: Clearing up a misconception
  • Letter: School funding advocates omit details
  • Letter: Protect Mathews’ future by supporting schools
  • Letter: Highlighting a few outstanding volunteers
  • Letter: Coming after your safety net
  • Editorial: Saved … once again
  • Letter: Make Gloucester Point a beautiful entry point
  • Letter: Expand Virginia Medicaid
  • Editorial: The blood of the martyr
  • Letter: Limiting guns is only a Band-Aid
  • Letter: More budget deliberation needed
  • Letter: Budget is a process
  • Letter: Hear me out!
  • Letter: Deny Villages of Gloucester proposal
  • Letter: Rousing successes
  • Letter: Don’t mow your daffodils
  • Editorial: A matter of trust
  • Letter: ‘Brighter Childhoods’
  • Letter: ‘If you can’t take the heat …’
  • Letter: No place is free from crime

Support our advertisers

www.Hoggerealestate.com

facebook

Gloucester Mathews Gazette-Journal, 6625 Main Street, P.O. Box 2060, Gloucester, VA 23061 Phone: (804) 693-3101
© Copyright 2011-2018, Tidewater Newspapers, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Sunday, April 22, 2018 - 6:05 pm