Brokenland:
No Vacation
26 July 2013

Matthew Yglesias argues against closing public schools in the summer, especially in poor districts. (Slate; via MetaFilter)

The entire issue tends to vanish from public debate, because the educated, affluent people who run the debate don’t particularly suffer from it. Summer vacation costs money, but prosperous parents are happy to spend it on their kids. And of course there’s the sentimentality factor. I’ll always treasure tender thoughts of my beloved Camp Winnebago and would one day love to have the experience of picking up my kid from the very same camp I attended when I was young.

But these days, Camp Winnebago is charging $11,550 for a full eight-week session. No doubt more affordable options are out there, but the basic reality is that parents’ ability to provide enriching summer activities for their children is going to be sharply constrained by income. Working-class single moms in urban neighborhoods—exactly the kind of parents whose kids tend to have the most problems in school—are put in a nearly impossible situation by summer vacation.

Summer vacation — which was anything but a vacation in our agricultural past — does seem to be a tradition that makes no sense. Although how teachers would live without it, I can’t imagine.

One Response to “Brokenland:
No Vacation
26 July 2013

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