Some Texas school districts have decided to switch to four-day-a-week schedule instead of five days to attract teachers and give students more flexibility in the work and life schedules.

Since the COVID-19 Pandemic presented many challenges to teachers, many of them have retired or resigned, and to this day a lot of schools have classes with substitute teachers throughout the whole year. This is why many of the districts that have gone to a four-day school week do it to save money and not have to struggle with teachers leaving.

I believe having four-day school would be much better not just because we get an extra day off but because I would be using that extra day to work.

A lot of high schoolers have part-time jobs and it’s such a big pressure having to go to school during the day  as soon as they get out of school, students have to go to work and end up getting home late after trying to eat, do their homework, and go to sleep just to repeat the same thing the next day.

Having to repeat that every day drains you physically and mentally. Many students work to be able to pay for basic necessaties, including helping with rent, as well as car and insurance expenses. Having an extra day off would allow them to work more and be able to earn more money or even just use that extra day off to get caught up with school or even basic stuff at the house.

When hearing about districts having the possibility of going to a four-day school week students and teachers love the idea, And as great as it seems we still have to consider whether going to a four-day school week is going to benefit us. Some districts decided to question students and teachers and see if they thought the change had been for the better or worse based on what they would say they compared it with the actual data from school districts.

Based on the data they were able to collect, they could tell that there was almost little to no difference. One of the many reasons why they would say four-day school week would be better was because they wanted to save money but when comparing whether there was much change on how much money was being spent and saved they didn’t really see a difference.

While I understand some may be concerned that students will learn less, some schools that have successfully offered tutoring programs to help students in need of additional instruction. I think every school district in Texas should consider a four-day school week to decide if it could have benefits for students and educators alike.