By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
At Manalapan High School, the school year runs 185 days and the school day begins at 7 a.m.
Superintendent Chuck Sampson isn’t sure what the governor has in mind.
“I don’t think anyone on face value would say longer isn’t something that needs to be investigated, but absent any more specifics about it, it’s too early to make any informed judgment on what that means,” Sampson said.
Gov. Chris Christie called today’s school calendar “antiquated.”
“Life in 2014 is much different than life 100 years ago, and it demands something more for our students. It is time to lengthen both the school day and the school year in New Jersey,” Christie said during his State of the State address Tuesday.
That took the education community by surprise and raised many questions.
Lynne Strickland’s Garden State Coalition of Schools represents about 100 mainly suburban districts.
“You tend when you get a big, broad idea put out there, number one, with no knowledge that it’s coming, people react and they tend to react by saying, ‘What about this? What about that?’ we’re doing that to some extent. These are stumbling blocks. But it also makes us think, makes us develop variables, alternatives, nuances to the theme,” Strickland said.
The biggest stumbling block is cost.
A longer school day or year is likely to trigger teacher demands for commensurate salary boosts.
Under a 2 percent property tax cap, that money may be hard to find.
After the governor’s speech yesterday an NJEA official said the union is open to discussion but wonders where the money for existing commitments is, like full-day kindergarten and pre-K.
“I was very perplexed when I heard today he had vetoed the task force study on full-day kindergarten, especially when we have proximately only 78 percent of our districts that offer full-day kindergarten,” said Marie Blistan of the NJEA.
Will all parents want a longer school day? Will shore towns want to see a shorter summer for families? Some of the many questions the governor has raised.
“Is it one size fits all? Would there be any flexibility on how districts meet that mandate? Would districts be allowed to demonstrate in some other ways that those opportunities are evident? All these are questions I would even begin to weigh in on whether it’s a good or bad initiative,” Sampson said.
In a 1983 report called “A Nation at Risk,” American educators called for more days per year of classroom instruction. It looks like New Jersey is going to revisit that debate 31 years later.