Five-day week learning allows parents to fully return to work
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Some parents could have the opportunity for the first time in months to fully return to work after the Columbia Board of Education voted Monday night to return to in-person learning five days a week.
A study from Brookings Institute said working parents are the key to recovering from the pandemic.
"Any economic recovery will rely on their continued participation or reentry into the labor force," the study said.
Since schools in parts of Missouri and across the country have been in forms of online or hybrid learning at some point during the pandemic, parents have had to adjust work situations and in some cases completely quit.
According to the National Women's Law Center, 2.3 million women have left the workforce since February 2020 and account for 55% of overall net job loss since the start of the pandemic.
Matt McCormick, president of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce said the return to a five-day week could help bring parents back to the work force.
"You started seeing a trend of more women leaving the workforce to be at home with their kids or having to work through that process and so hopefully what this does is it starts reversing that." McCormick said.
CPS parent Scott Halterman said the board's decision to move back to a five-day week will not only help parents juggle less, it will also help their employers.
"A lot of parents can go back to work full-time and that helps in many different ways all around," Halterman said.
Watch a replay of the school board discussion and vote in the player below.
CPS parent Andrea Jackson has been able to work from home two days a week throughout the pandemic and said she is looking forward to going back to work full-time.
"I have five kids in all CPS schools, so we have kids going Monday, Tuesday and then I have other kids Thursday, Friday and then some going the four days right now," she said. "The consistency that this will bring is going to be a game changer."
This is the first time Columbia Public Schools students will return to a five-day week since the beginning of the pandemic.
For a brief moment CPS elementary students returned to classrooms in the fall, but had to move back online as coronavirus cases increased in the community.
The board voted for the move as cases have been on a steady decline in the community. As of Monday, the 14-day case rate per 10,000 people sank to 11.5.
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