How about a four-day school week? Go Memphis!

While businesses seek to reduce costs by buying out the jobs of longtime employees, teachers with the Memphis City Schools have come up with a great idea to make education more effective and less expensive.

They want to go to a four-day work week. That would mean slightly longer school days, but those two hours would keep children in schools and off the street. History books could actually be finished in a school year.

Parents could save money on child care after school. Cities could save on after-school programs and apply the money directly to help households or put it into the classroom. The list goes on and on.

Just think if businesses could be examining the same advancement instead of continuing the ongoing retreat in quality and service. Such a step would save households one day of driving. That would save the environment from another day of pollution each week. That would give children another day with their parents -- to play, to finish homework and love life besides each other.

School districts would save on one day a week of utilities, one day of cleaning, one day of using scare supplies. That adds up fast, considering that Wilson County Schools just barely passed a tax hike to keep sports and necessary jobs in the district.

Let's hear it for Memphis and better and more efficient government. Read more about the idea and see what benefit such a change could deliver to your community and your children.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/sep/17/mcs-teachers-may-seek-4-day-week/