Assuming this article was inspired by Gove's suggestions to extend school day until 6?
That idea scares me- boys travel far afield to attend ASD specialist mainstream schools that would have to adhere to the rules, I could be faced with an 11 year old out of the house between 7am and 7.30 pm with his journey to his provision! He already gets tired and sleeps at school!
BUT whilst I don't like it being compulsory, yes it's hard to survive on one income and there's no great parenting in being constantly on the move or malnourished either. I think all schools should provide good quality wrap around care. And yes, I suspect teachers would snap it up: ours are usually there at 8am, and still there at 5.30pm, with home planning etc to do as well. Teachers with small children.
'It's obvious that kids from poor parents probably are better off in school longer and those from wealthier are probably better off at home more'
REALLY?
We're financially poor. We weren't always, DH was made redundant and some of our kids have autism so I am now a Carer. however we are also both graduates, both loving supportive parents. Having asked for SSD provision several times for disability help I can assure you I have plenty of paperwork stating that to deny us respite! I worked for a parenting charity.
Now there are certainly struggling parents who may well be so dysfunctional that they also cannot manage their finances or hold down work, either because they are somehow messed up or maybe have bad life experiences or low level SN / MH issues. There are also well off parents who get away with being awful parents because they can buy in help, I can think of at least 2 functioning alcoholics I know in that situation. But a correlation between low income and poor parenting only means that they CAN be linked, not that they are causal, and therefore you cannot extrapolate that to all financially strapped parents. I did not have a lobotomy the day I dropped my above mentioned parenting charity job and received Carer's Allowance.