President Obama has suggested that schools need are longer days. Some charter schools in fact do use longer days, and longer school years. But if they’re added to the traditional school system, the only sure result will be higher expenses.

One education analyst looks at the idea and finds it wanting:

“Extending the school calendar without making improvements to the curriculum and teacher quality would simply subject students to additional hours of unproductive instruction. Indeed, high-performing countries are successful because they employ strong leaders, focus on measurable results, and maintain very high expectations for all teachers, parents, and students. Our public schools should focus on the same.”

As it turns out, in many successful countries, students spend fewer hours, not more, in class. Quality, not quantity.

The U.S. Department of Education has announced the 2009 Blue Ribbon schools. According to a press release from the department, “The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private schools based on one of two criteria: 1) Schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent of their state on state tests or in the case of private schools in the top 10 percent of the nation on nationally-normed tests; and 2) Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that demonstrate dramatic improvement of student performance to high levels on state tests or nationally-normed tests.”

Five schools in Kansas made the list. They are:

Rock Creek Junior/Senior High School (USD 323, St. George), in the category “Schools in the top 10% with less than 40% of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

The following schools earned the distinction of being in the top 10% of schools in the state with at least 40% of students from disadvantaged backgrounds:

Broken Arrow Elementary, Lawrence

Oakley Elementary, Oakley

Phillipsburg Elementary, Phillipsburg

Robinson Elementary, Augusta

In tight financial times–at any time, really–government ought to be smart in the way it uses your money. But it often spends education dollars rather foolishly.  One key example is when it treats teachers as interchangeable parts.

See The Widget Effect, an interesting and useful new study from The New  Teacher Project, on the need to make sure that we recognize good teachers, give all teachers appropriate feedback for continuous improvement, and dismiss ineffective ones. While taking these steps is important for all children, they are especially important for those from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.

School boards represent the public. Correct? Maybe.

You’d think that in these challenging economic times, school boards would be looking for ways to economize the public dollars they are entrusted with. They could look at, say, ways to make schools more productive, make the best use of the people they have, and so forth.

The Kansas Association of School Boards scored Kansas legislators on issues relating to education. Correction. On issues relating to increasing spending on schools. (You can find the report, in PDF, here.) In the eyes of the KASB, the difference between “pro-education” legislators and “anti-education” legislators is … 1 percent.

If you can’t find a way to cut your expenses by 1 percent, you shouldn’t be in management.

Profit-seeking in education? Not exactly. After all, plenty of businesses make money in education, selling textbooks, tests, school supplies, and curriculum aids of various sorts.

The Pope Center for Higher Education Policy points out that for-profit colleges are the fastest-growing institutions in higher education.