Seems like school schedules are on the minds of lots of parents lately and rightly so, since they have a huge impact on our children's education as well as our ability to work and care for our families. San Diego, California and Orange County, Florida parents have been in the news protesting changes in their local school hours. And, here in Illinois, parents in Peoria School District 150 are denouncing a decision to shorten the school day every Wednesday by 90 minutes for teacher preparation and planning purposes (it would have been 45 minutes EVERY DAY had it not been for an outpouring of community outrage which resulted in the scaled back plan).

Of course, this all rings a familiar bell since ParentsWork recently wrapped up a campaign in our home town of Evanston, Illinois to stop the expansion of early dismissal days in next year's school calendar. But just as we won that battle and were catching our breath, administrators in our local School District 65 turned around and announced that they've decided to change the start and dismissal times for three elementary schools come this fall. Check out my blog on EvanstonNow.com for views on what's been happening here.

So, why all of this tinkering with the school day? As far as I can tell, lack of adequate funding for education is a major driving factor as districts are desperate to find ways to trim expenses. And so, they are shifting schedules and taking valuable instructional time away from students in order to save on transportation costs and carve out professional development time for teachers without adding more days (and dollars) onto their contracts. Related to this, of course, is the length of the school year. Illinois has among the shortest in the nation (a paltry 176 days) and it seems that unless we find the will and the money to tackle that, it will be difficult to find a lasting solution to the scheduling challenges our schools and families are up against. In the meantime, though, it will be up to us parents to keep up the fight in our local communities to halt further erosion of the school day and continue to push for a consistent schedule that is more in sync with today's work and child care realities.