During the typical morning chaos to get ready for work and school, the newscasters from The Today Show babble on and on in our family room television. Hoda or Al are background noise as kids frantically throw lunch boxes into backpacks and Steve finds his train tickets. Occasionally, we’ll stop and listen if we hear something interesting. 

Last week, I poked my head into the family room, because one of the newscasters, Jenna Bush Hager was talking about schools, my policy speciality. Hager, the daughter of the former president, profiled a superintendent in Ohio, who was rolling out a four day school week for students, because he said that his teachers were burned out. On Mondays, students will conduct “self-learning” at home, while teachers will use that time to prepare for the rest of the school week. 

Hager said that 850 schools across the country were doing this, and it was okay because districts had figured out how to get free lunches to the kids and helped parents with childcare. She said one sentence about learning lag during the pandemic. Mostly, Jenna and the other newscasters seemed to love the idea.

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