do you know why grades are slipping? gangs, drugs, alcohol, no punishments for not handing in work. i have met dozens of people just in my classes in the last 2 years that will never get anywhere because they dont give a damn. people like them bring grades down alot.

summer vacation does not bring grades down.

if he wants to shorten summer vacation, why not add the same amount of time to the winter vacation? 2 2-month long breaks during the year. then right as you start to get bored.....school!
Long summer vacations are indeed bad in terms of education; that's basically two-plus months for your brain to atrophy. Your brain does not like useless BS and is constantly deleting "junk" to make room for important memories and information. Knowing how to divide polynomials is, to your brain, worthless. Since this information is not being reinforced throughout the summer, students often have to "relearn" the same things over and over. For example, for PreCalculus this year, so far we've been going over functions-related material that I first learned 3-4 years ago.

You have a massive personal bias regarding this issue, anyone can see that. That said, so do I.

No shortened vacations! Down with Obumma!

US has rather brief school-times in comparison.
I read in an article about this very topic that US students have more instructional hours per year than most students in other countries (like, a hundred more than Japan, 200 more than Taiwan or something like that). Maybe a factor is that we're just inefficient?

Hehe, I know, I am no Obama fan myself, but you have to understand that on the Senate floor individuals are expected to act civil and not to insult other persons directly. Calling the United States President a "liar" literally in his face, during a Senate session is unprecedented in US.
Remember the early 19th century, when politicians used to have duels and beat the **** out of each other? Imagine Joe Wilson performing a somersault jump-kick right into Obama's face instead of accusing Obama of lying.