The FINANCIAL -- With summer vacation in full swing, a majority of Americans now believe
children need to spend more time in school. However, they are against a
12-month school calendar.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% of American Adults say children need to spend more time in school. Thirty-four percent (34%) disagree, while 10% are not sure.
The number of adults who believe children should spend more time in school is up seven points from early October 2009.
When asked if the school year should be extended to a 12-month calendar, two-out-of-three (66%) adults say they’re opposed to a year-round calendar. Just 27% favor extending the school year to 12-months. These findings mark little change since August 2009.
The national telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 19-20, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
A plurality of Americans (48%) thinks it’s good for children to have a lengthy summer vacation, a finding that has shown little change for years now. Thirty-four percent (34%) say a long summer vacation is bad for kids, while 18% are undecided.
Most adults (71%) believe there are life lesson learned during summer vacation that could never be learned in a classroom. Sixteen percent (16%) disagree with that assessment, and another 13% are not sure. These findings, too, show little change in recent years.
In many states, the school year now begins before Labor Day, but half of Americans (50%) say it should start after Labor Day. Forty- five percent (45%) think the school year should start in August.
The latest findings show Americans are more divided on this question than they have been in years. In the summer of 2009, 61% of adults favored a start date after Labor Day while 30% agreed school should open in August.
While 51% of adults with children living at home say kids need to spend more time in school, 60% of adults without children agree.
Just over half of men (53%) say a lengthy summer vacation is good for children, a view shared by 44% of women. Males are slightly more inclined than females to believe life lessons obtained during summer are more valuable than those learned in the classroom.
Separate polling finds that half of all Americans nationwide now believe that today’s children are worse off than those of the previous generation. Most adults also continue to believe today’s children won’t be better off than their parents.
Americans continue to believe that young children are on their computers and other electronic devices too often and think parents should control how much time they spend doing so.
Most (89%) adults say it will be at least somewhat difficult for recent graduates to find a job in the current economy. That includes 56% who say it will be Very Difficult.
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