Colorado Introduces 4-day School Week

Will this innovation have the same impact as its experiments with marijuana legalization? “The Centennial State’s independent streak also extends to education policy, where we’ve been in the throes of another disquieting experiment, albeit one with a far longer history and arguably greater repercussions,” Dale Chu writes. “As Colorado’s students return to school this fall, more of them will be doing so for fewer days this year.”

“In fact, more than half of the state’s 178 school districts (58 percent) will operate on a four-day school week—the highest percentage of any state in the country. As with legalized marijuana, the enduring effects of the four-day week remain unclear, and getting either genie back into its respective bottle will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.”

Chu is a senior visiting fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

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