Recently, a number of school districts have decided to adopt a four-day school week policy mainly with the intentions of saving money.

This decision comes with its ups and downs, as many decisions do.

So far, ten different states and over 180 districts have decided to adopt this policy. Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming and, most recently, Minnesota all have districts with the four-day school week currently in use.

The system was put into place for economic reasons such as saving money on utilities, buses and salaries.

The four-day system has also allowed some schools to keep their dying arts and music programs, which always seem to be the first to go on a dwindling budget.

Some schools choose to have Fridays off because of the large amounts of sports events on these days, but some feel that having Mondays off is more economically fit, due to the fact that on Fridays the furnaces and heaters remain on for sports events.

Some clear benefits that states have begun to notice are the decline in the drop out rate, a decline in disciplinary problems, attendance has improved, an increase in positive attitudes and a gain in extracurricular activities participation.

For the most part the results have been positive and have proven to be worthy. However, there are a few concerns with the system such as childcare for the day off and slightly longer time spent at school during attending days, as well as the worry that special needs students will have a hard time retaining information with an extra day off.

So far these worries have proven to be miniscule.

One answer to the childcare problem might be to apply the four-day system simply to high schools, but that doesn’t exactly save on transportation costs.

When you think about it, the high school students really are the ones who need the break. In many experiences, college has proven to be a bit more stress free than high school.

For example, in Charleston the high school students go everyday and have eight classes everyday, with one being a study hall for half a period and lunch the other half. They only get five minutes in between these classes and 30 minutes for a lunch break.

If you have homework in seven classes that require a textbook, then chances are you’re stuck lugging home at least five textbooks. That is if you can get some of it done in study hall.

Compared to the average college student schedule, this is stressing.

In college you have an average of five classes that you can take online or all in the same day or every other day. Not to mention you can schedule as big of a gap in between classes as you’d like. In addition, in college you also have the benefit of taking classes you enjoy.

Julian Russell is a junior communication studies major. He can be reached at 581-7942 or at denopinions@gmail.com