Blog 6: Orange County wants more schooling

The Orange County education chief of Costa Meso, California says that their students need more school.  William Habermehl, education chief, believes that more time spent in school is needed in order to compete in the global economy with places like China, Japan, etc.  In Orange County and other US educational systems students spend on average about 180 days a year in school compared to the 200-220 days a year students in China and other Asia countries do.  Federal funding may not be able to afford more days especially since some schools are cutting days.  Habermehl wants the federal government to stop running to the aid of other countries while spending millions of dollars and help take care of home first, like the educational system.

In this news story, Habermehl thinks that adding more school days will help better prepare students in Orange County.  Many studies have been done and it has shown that quality is more beneficially than the quantity of education.  Habermehl may have the best intentions on improving the educational system, but adding more days will not do any good until good quality education is provided.  In order to provide this type of education they need more resources.  Federal funding for schools need to  focus on providing quality to education than quantity of adding days that may not even increase a better outcome for students.  In richer parts of Asia, they have quality education along with more school days.  Singapore which is in Southeast Asia has primary schools of top academic excellence.  Academic excellence is the way of telling if the education there is of good quality.  These schools usually have 8 hours of instruction, better technology/resources, individual help or group help.  The difference in education quality varies because of the unequal distribution of funds.  Wealthy schools get more funding and draw in higher quality teachers.  They have better resources and smaller teacher to child ratios.  Unequal funding in the educational system is a problem that exists across the globe.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/school-341623-students-education.html