Four-Day School Week Explodes Across Missouri

The move to a four-day school week has exploded in the last year in the state – almost doubled, according to Missouri Education Commissioner Margie Vandeven. During a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday, she says the switch to shortened weeks started about one decade ago.

“What started back when times were tough financially, when we were seeing quite a bit of inflation in the transportation costs and so forth about a decade ago, has now really transitioned. And what they’re citing is it’s teacher recruitment and retention.”

Missouri currently has nearly 60 districts or charter schools using the four-day model. In 2011, former Governor Jay Nixon signed into law a bipartisan bill making a four-day school week optional for districts by moving from requiring 174 days of instruction to a total of 1,044 hours.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is about 185 million dollars short of full transportation funding. The agency is also developing a plan to recruit and keep teachers around.

Governor Mike Parson is proposing $3.56 billion dollars in base funding for Missouri’s K through 12 public schools – a 10 million dollar increase compared to the current fiscal year. Parson also wants to boost school transportation spending by $10 million dollars to an overall $117 million.