Something that has increasingly made little sense is the strict adherence to the college two-semester system, with students attending in the fall and spring with summers off. More and more of those attending are of the non-traditional variety, older students who are looking to get through as fast as possible so they can enter the skilled workforce. Summer school at the college level has existed, but usually with very limited course selections and in the form of 5-week “Maymester” style-classes that cram in information as rapidly as possible, only to be quickly forgotten. Wake County has already expanded its year-round K-12 schedule with great success.

Harry Painter discusses a proposed expansion of the summer school schedule in the North Carolina Community College System. A bill funding and enabling this expansion is making its way through the legislature.