Dear Editor,
In response to the letter to the editor on Jan. 14 regarding all-day kindergarten, I hope the writer realizes that currently the Lake Orion school district supports 1219.75 hrs. In order to match China, we will have to do one of two things: increase the school day by 2 hrs 55 minutes to 9 hrs 45 minutes per day, or increase the school year from 178.5 days to 255 days. This is the reality if hours spent in school is the clear reason that few Americans are qualified to do the techincal jobs of tomorrow.
The additional 342 hours added to kindergarten wll not make up for the 6276 hours lost to China in grades 1-12 (assuming that Chinese children have the same grades).
–David Abbott