In Utah, 4-day school weeks mean less commuting, more labor

• They join 19 others that have switched to shorter weeks.

Zoom out: About 850 districts nationally have trimmed the school week by a full day, up from 650 in 2019, Axios' Jennifer Kingson reports.

Why it matters: Shorter weeks correlate directly with a drop in test scores and academic achievement, studies show.

• Yes, but: It's hard to gauge the effect on student performance at Utah's 4-day schools because many of them made the switch around the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which drastically affected students' progress.

The intrigue: Piute County administrators have said the change will allow more kids to get jobs — echoing Box Elder School District, which in 2017 eliminated Friday classes to free up kids to work on ranches.

• That coincides with a nationwide push among conservatives to weaken child labor restrictions and encourage teens to work.
• Utah has the nation's second-highest rate of teenagers in the labor force, federal data show — something Gov. Spencer Cox extolled as "a good thing."

Rural Utah districts point to long commutes that force students to miss class time.

• Students in Box Elder and Tintic districts travel up to 40 miles a day, many on dirt roads, to reach schools that are 40-90 miles from the nearest town.

Of note: There's also a "contagion" effect. Some districts adopt a 4-day-a-week schedule to retain teachers, or poach them, after nearby school systems switch over.

• The Tooele district switched Wendover High School to 4-day weeks in 2020 for fear of losing teachers to the neighboring Nevada district, which also reduced its weeks.