Posted by Michelle Manchir at 7:48 p.m.
SPRINGFIELD – Forget the three-day weekend, school kids.
An Illinois Senate panel today killed a measure that would have given local school boards the option of setting four-day school weeks. The House approved the measure last month to try to help financially strapped school districts save money. Lawmakers said the move could save on fuel for buses, particularly in large rural districts, and scale back their electric bills for school buildings.
“Kids in Chicago need to go to school eight days a week,” joked Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, head of the Senate Education Committee.
Under the proposal, students in school four days a week still would have been required to go to school the same amount of hours every year as children in school five days a week. That could have meant longer school days could or shorter summer vacations.
Major education groups, including the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union, opposed the measure. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley also turned thumbs down.
Sponsoring Sen. Michael Frerichs, D-Champaign, said he took up the issue when a school superintendent back home approached him about ever-increasing fuel costs. Large rural districts tend to have longer bus routes with students who live in farms miles away from their schools.
“This is something they’re being pushed into,” Frerichs said. “We ought to have the local school districts have a little flexibility.”
Opponents fought back, saying it would minimize the hours students spend in schools.
“I think kids belong in school,” said Sen. Maggie Crotty, D-Oak Forest. “I’ve had one policeman call and say that you’d have kids on the street and most likely unsupervised.”