The extension of the school day means that many high schools will be dismissed between 3:30 p.m. or 4:00 p.m. depending on their new schedule. Due to large homework loads, long commutes to and from school, and extracurricular activities, students will not receive the rest and sleep they need. CPS and the school board want to catch up with schools around the world. They think that lengthening the school day will help CPS raise their ACT and other test scores. Some students get 1 to 5 hours of homework a night. Even with the dismissal time of 3:00 p.m., they are doing homework very late. Also, many students have long commutes home (1-2 hours) plus homework and extracurriculars (which could last up to 2 hours). Students need 8-9 hours of sleep, but if they are up late doing homework then they are damaging their health in order to complete their work (javascript:nicTemp();). 

Also, teachers are not getting paid for the extra time they put in. It is not fair to the teachers if they are not getting paid for the hours of extra time they put in each week. In addition, there are hardly any plans for what how the extra time should be used. The longer school day should be put into affect at a later date when sufficient plans have been made for how the extra time will be used. 

Education should not be considered as quantity over quality and it should not be a competition between other nations. The future generation's education should not be a battle of politics. If CPS and the school board want to raise our low ACT scores to "level the playing field" with other countries around the world, lengthening the school day is not the answer.