Shorter school hours: Are kids being short-changed?

As school districts across the nation grapple with severe and ongoing budget cuts, they are resorting to all sorts of methods to make the bottom line work. Art and music classes go away, along with extracurricular activities.

In many states, school districts have taken the drastic move of actually going to a four-day week. Now, although that is something my son would heartily endorse, I can't help but think it's a bad idea.

On the other end of the spectrum, Mike Feinberg, co-founder of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), thinks children should be in school even longer than they are.

KIPP is a program of more than 80 public charter schools spread out among 19 states. At the KIPP schools, students report at 7:30 a.m. and aren't set free until 5 p.m. Some middle schools even have classes two Saturdays a month.

Feinberg makes his case for the longer hours, saying that leaves plenty of time for students to take art or music — even a foreign language.

I'm not convinced. More than nine hours a day for school seems excessive. Where is the time for playing with friends outside or just relaxing with a good book? And I'm also not sure that little kids even have the attention span to stay engaged that long.

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