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"The summer break is a relic from our agricultural past" Not correct. It was instituted by Chicago USD to save on air conditioning costs." -> Urbanization created the long summer vacation, not an agricultural economy. If all students had more or less the same schedule it was easier to administer testing and sell standardized education materials like textbooks.
see: https://psmag.com/why-do-we-still-have-summer-vacation-8ccff6fff9ef#.coxrfekjh or
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/debunking-myth-summer-vacation/
I had six kids go through this school system, so I do have some first hand experience and knowledge on this topic. Kids were flat-out better educated back in the 60s and 70s when I was going to school, and anyone who argues differently can take their studies and shuck them. Back then, we started right after Labor Day and ended in early June. We didn't take off two-plus weeks for Christmas or the entire week of Thanksgiving, or have BS late-start days. If you want to argue about a long summer being a problem for knowledge retention, you can say the exact same thing about these huge holiday breaks! Year-round school is a stupid idea, children need to have their time off in summer to experience and learn about other things, and to simply give the rest. The school boards and administrations, as far as I'm concerned, care far more about their own needs and wishes than those of the kids.
Children need time to play and be children. The summer break is a relic from our agricultural past, but it is a time for children to rest and play. If we adopted year around schooling, then we would join China, Japan, South and North Korea, Nigeria and Australia.
Other than Japan and Australia, that is a rather unimpressive list.
Year-round school would enhance education and allow teachers a work week every month to plan, grade, etc. Holiday breaks could be two weeks each, and another two or three in July.
while a condensed school year may be easier for the parents, it should be noted that the longer break causes less retention of information with the child. The first weeks are spent relearning what they learned the year before and that translates into time (and tax dollars) wasted.