Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama,
Straight up, I don't agree with you on many things. That being said, I read an article the other day which read,

"American schoolkids attend school for fewer days than children in other educationally advanced countries, a situation President Obama said Monday needs to change. “I think we should have a longer school year,” Obama said in response to a question from the Today show’s Matt Lauer during a White House interview that kicked off the network’s weeklong “Education Nation” focus on American schools. Noting that many of our economic competitors keep their kids in school for an additional month a year, Obama said he believes “that month makes a difference.” He added that research shows many students “are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year” over summer break, and that the loss “is especially severe for poor kids. A longer school year makes sense.”

As an educator, I completely agree with you that students need a longer school year. That extra month of school could replace the month of video games they play during the summer. Also, an extra month of school from Kindergarten-12th grade would = an extra year of education.

Trust me...our kids need it. Today I graded a simple worksheet that was probably intended for 7th-8th graders, but had been administered to my sophomores who had struggled mightily with the differnce between past and present tense. Many of my students scored 20 out of the possible 20. They know that the past tense of "to do" is "did."

Many of my students failed this worksheet with scores of 50% or below... Do you know who scored a 19 out of 20? My German foreign exchange student....

Mr. Obama,
Our students NEED to have more access to education. Again, though I disagree with you on many fronts (though not on your handling of the war, please keep kicking @$$ with those predator drones; you are doing a great job there) I hope that with sometime in the next 2 years you can have a debate with the senate and the congress and figure out a bipartisan way to improve our time for student learning. Our future depends on it- Justin Reeves