California May Shorten School Year

According to this article in Ed Week, May 16, California may shorten the school year from 180 days by as much as 25 days or 5 weeks in 2011/2012 !  This translates into one-seventh of the school year.  My 11- year- old son's response to this when I told him was: "Can we move to California?" Due to budget cuts and furlough days in 2010/2011, many schools in California have already eliminated things like art, music, and science because there is simply not enough time to cover the material assessed on the state testing.  My nephew and his classmates in Davis, California had to give up their afternoon recess this year to create more instructional time. By reducing the school year even more, teachers fear they will not be able to cover the material to meet the state standards.  The article also raises the issue of inequity.  If some school districts hold classes 162 days and others 178 days, there will be a great disparity in education.  A parent from San Jose who was interviewed talked about the difficulties that working parents face finding childcare for the furlough days.  My whole extended family lives in California.  I know that my sister and her husband had to take turns this spring staying home from work to be there with my nephew during a Davis Unified School District furlough week.  For families with two working parents 5 additional weeks would present a huge problem.  The article also brings up the issue of teenagers.  Do we really want to have teenagers with too much time on their hands?  There seems to be much talk in Ed Week, on NPR, and in the NYT about how badly U.S. students fare on international assessments.  In a recent  dinner table discussion with my German-born and educated husband we tallied up the number of days that he attended school and discovered that first of all he went to school year-round.  School vacations included 10 days in Fall, 2 weeks at Christmas, 10 days in the Spring, and 6 weeks in the summer.  We estimated that he went to school between 195 to 248 days a year, give or take a few.  He also attended school 6 days a week 9 out of the 13 years of his schooling.  Many German states require 13 years of schooling, rather than 12. Many students in this country also seem to regress over the long summer vacation.  In the article they say if we want kids to learn, progress, and meet state standards we should be extending the school year, not erasing it.  Maybe we should also consider a year-round school model?  I know that many, my own 6th grader and third grader included, would disown me for voicing this thought--- but after the discussion with my husband I am wondering whether it is worth thinking about.