Should the standard full-time workweek be cut to four days with no pay cut?

My school district tried a four-day week and parents hated it. Not the idea, the logistics: Fridays became a childcare scramble for every family without a flexible job or a grandparent nearby, which is most of my classroom. The research on student outcomes is mixed at best, and shorter weeks often mean longer days that exhaust younger kids. Office trials do not translate to schools, hospitals, or anyone whose job is covering other human beings. A national push for four days would hand affluent knowledge workers a benefit while quietly taxing working parents. Fix staffing and pay first; the calendar is not the crisis. The research backs the logistics worry: Oregon State's Paul Thompson found math and reading performance dropped in non-rural schools on four-day weeks, alongside spikes in absenteeism.