I know no teacher that works only 5 days a week during only the hours that the school itself contains students. There are many hours without students that are put into creating lessons, gathering the materials to implement those lessons, meeting with parents, tutoring students, applying for grants to obtain special materials to enrich their student's education that is not covered by the school budget, etc. Many teachers do work during the summer in order to support their families or are using that time to continue their own education in order to keep up with the evolutionary cycle that is learning. I agree there are some teachers that do the bare minimun. You will find those type of workers in every aspect of any place of employment. It is not right to judge an entire group based on a few bad apples. The school year was originally set because students were needed during the summer season for planting, no one has changed that for some reason. If you ask most teachers, they would agree that 3 months is too much to be off. Much of September is usually spent reviewing in order to get the student back on track in order to learn the new material. teachers (even though paid by taxes paid by the school) are not civil servants. They are hired by what is deemed a private institution and not the government. The school board voted for as representatives for the school votes on each indvidual hire. At no time are any of the 3 branches of government involved in the hiring or firing process of a public school teacher.