More than 100 school districts in Oklahoma are thinking about implementing a four-day school week, and that’s putting pressure on working parents. It’s also forcing employers to adjust.
In the eastern Oklahoma town of Wagoner, several major employers haven’t complained about absent parents. Daycare centers are also expanding to make room for more children, even though childcare availability in the state has shrunk significantly since 2008.
Oklahoma City University economist Jonathan Willner told The Journal Record’s Brian Brus even though grandparents and relatives are filling that gap, there’s still effort and resources at play:
It’s basic math, he said: Merely spending time with a child during the day costs time and money, educational instruction aside. Moving the child out of school and into a day care center or grandparent’s house doesn’t make those expenses disappear. They’re called opportunity costs, the loss of potential gain when one alternative is chosen over others, Willner said. “And anyone who pretends they don’t exist doesn’t know anything about economics,” he said. “In small towns, how are you going to deal with this? It’s a real problem, especially since total day care space over the years has declined significantly.”
If parents change their schedule to match the school, their productivity can wane with longer hours on the job, and Tulsa Regional Chamber economic research director Bob Ball estimates that every 100 workers who stay home equates to three employees being laid off.
That’s one of the reasons Lawton doesn’t want a four-day school week, said Patty Neuwirth, spokeswoman at the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce. “Lawton officials have not even considered a four-day week because I think they would be killed by the public,” she said. “I just asked one of the moms in our office what she thought of the idea, and she said, ‘Oh my gosh, no; I’m already paying enough in child care.’ You’re pushing the most expensive burden back on the parents. “We want them to have more school, not less school,” she said.
State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister said in a statement to The Journal Record the savings generated by four-day school weeks aren’t worth the potential harm to students’ academic growth.
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