When it comes to school calendars, as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” America has been using the ten-month system since its earliest years and has still been effective to this day. Why change something so effective?

Although our current ten-month school calendar was originally based on the need for students  to have summers off to help with the family farm, summer still provides numerous valuable opportunities for students to continue their learning outside the classroom. 

Children get a chance during the summer break to do lots of activities that they don’t have time for in the regular school year. Some participate in sports, others go off to specialized camps for the duration of the break. Others need to pick up jobs in order to gain job experience and money. Families also can take advantage of summers as a way to spend time together by going on trips. 

For those who would argue year-round schooling would increase student achievement, there is no published data as of yet. 

According to a report entitled, “Year-Round Schools: In Brief,”  by Rebecca R. Skinner, a Specialist in Education Policy for the Congressional Research Service, “The research on the extent to which year-round schools affect student achievement has generally been found to be inconclusive and lacking in methodological rigor.” 

Simply put, there is no conclusive evidence that a year-round schedule would work to improve student achievement because not enough schools have tried it for long enough. 

Another argument against year-round schooling in the United States is that the climate in Europe and America are both noticeably different. Geographically, Europe is further away from the equator than the majority of states. Most U.S. schools are built to be able to handle cold weather, but the infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle the surge of use of air conditioning over the summer. 

Another problem arises with energy costs in  running a campus full-time. As reported in “3 Reasons Not to Adopt Year-Round Schooling,” by Matthew Lynch on theadvocate.org, “The summer months are typically the highest ones for energy consumption.  In fact, the average electricity bill for homeowners in the summer months goes up 4 to 8 percent.  Having empty classrooms in the summer means less money going out to air conditioners and prevents other warm-weather costs from hitting school utility budgets.”  

Implementing a year-round schedule would mean raising taxes, placing a burden on those who already struggle to pay their bills in an economy where inflation is on the rise. 

In the end, there’s next to no reason as to why the calendar should be changed. The real world isn’t going to have a few weeks off here and there. The system works fine and there’s no real point in changing it.