If you’re a Fresno Unified School District student, and your grades aren’t the greatest, kiss your summer goodbye.

Reporter Tracy Correa wrote a piece in the Fresno Bee on April 3 about how the district will begin to automatically enroll students in summer school, should they receive a C grade or lower. If the student received a C or better during the last semester of the year, the student will only be enrolled for half the summer session.

Correa wrote, “the district plans to use some of the millions of dollars it received in federal economic stimulus funds to enroll more than 10,000 students.”

According to the piece, the district wants its students to demonstrate proficiency in their classes, meaning C grades or better, much like specified major requirements for college courses. Students are able to get out of the automatic enrollment if they can persuade their parents to sign a waiver.

Here’s the fun part. Recently, the district has laid off a number of teachers because it’s strapped for cash. Correa wrote the district will use its new-found money to double the amount of high school teachers alone, for the summer session. This reminds me of the federal government “creating” jobs via the census. In both cases, they aren’t permanent and after the summer session, the laid-off teachers will be out of work again, just like the census workers.

Correa stated that during this school year, 57 percent of high school students received a D or F in the first semester. That’s a very large number. Maybe there’s some reasoning behind the recent layoffs, besides empty bank accounts.

According to the district’s Web site, the summer session lasts for about a month, beginning in mid-June, lasting through mid-to-late July. That’s about a month’s worth of time to cram a whole school year’s worth of work. These are also four-day school weeks.

When I took high school summer classes, I remember the sessions being far less labor intensive, with far less actual work and/or assignments being given. After failing an Algebra class, I amazingly earned a B and still didn’t really learn a damn thing.

If I were a FUSD student, without neurotic grade-mongering parents, why would I put any effort at all into the regular classes taken during the school year? Especially knowing that for a month in the summer, I could do far less work and possibly end up with a “proficient” grade then.

By implementing this new rule, students may lose incentives to do well during the school year, when they could just make up for it later. Either that, or the district could be subject to students who don’t want to be forced to take summer school classes, which may lead to more truancy issues and wasted funds.

Correa interviewed a high school student “who admitted to ‘slacking off’ and not doing homework,” in an English class. The student told Correa that he already intended to take the class over in summer school, whether or not he would automatically be enrolled.

The student thought the district’s plan is a good one because, “more kids could pass with higher grades and have a better chance at college.”

Hate to break it to you Junior, but straight-A students are having a tough time getting into colleges. Find me a college that would openly accept a student whose parent is their district.