School Year

Please know that many of the students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are much more disadvantaged than “Budget Deal Adds Day to School Year” (Aug. 11) reflects. The current law requires students to attend school for 180 days each year. Many overcrowded year-round schools are on a Concept 6 calendar designed to accommodate one-third more students; children on these schedules attend school for only 163 days per year. The 17 fewer days of attendance are supposedly adjusted for with 25 additional minutes of daily classroom instruction.

When you subtract six “pupil-free” staff development days that some of the Concept 6 schools are allowed to take each year, many students in LAUSD are actually in attendance for only 157 days. That’s 15 days less than the current shameful 172 days of instruction for many students in our state!

State Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin is on the right track--all students should attend school for at least 190 days each year. Additional days should be added for paid teacher staff development. Otherwise, how will our young people compete, when so many Asian and European students receive 240 days or more of instruction each year?

MARCIA CHOLODENKO

Encino