We never specified when the recess period was supposed to occur or provided funding for additional monitors. This helps solve that problem.
I'm leaving when recess specifically occurs up to the individual schools or districts to decide. I strongly believe that matters like an ultra-specific schedule should not be set by our government - localities should have the freedom to decide when recess is.
As for funding for additional monitors - that's a very good point that I admittedly didn't think of. $5 million sounds like enough, and I'd gladly support that. Admittedly I'd like to hear some reasoning behind why the recess period should be cut to 15 minutes.
The problem is that if you don't specify recess could be during the lunch period, it could be viewed as not allowed. The time for recess has to come from somewhere. I'd rather it not come from classroom time.
What I'm mostly concerned about is that some schools will just decide to cut lunch instead of recess. Quite frankly, I've noticed a "war on playtime" arising - I remember when recess was cut at my school, there was so much outrage when recess was cut in half that they extended it back to around 25 minutes and wound up gradually cutting it back to over the next two years. While I do understand the need for more class time, it's not healthy or expected for our young children to be expected to have only thirty minutes of the day as a break, and I feel like setting a 30-minute minimum for recess will give them more energy to learn.
To answer Blair's question, I feel like regulating public education should come from the Assembly. I don't believe it's in my power to issue executive orders with that much weight, and I believe that my role exists as an administrator to the people and an advisor to you all.
