Legislation introduced Wednesday would force school systems to start classes no earlier than late August, starting this year.
The proposal would require systems to establish a start date for the
school year no earlier than the last Monday in August and no later than
the Wednesday after Labor Day.
As reported inthe AJC, the Georgia legislature is about to take a
look at proposed legislation to set a madatory earliest start date for
school systems throughout the state. School systems would no
longer be able to start in early and mid-August and many now do. The
proponents of the legislation claim that it is for the benefit of
families, but do not present any argument or research to support their
case.
I for one am opposed to the mandatory start date. For one, the
summer vacation is not disappearing or shrinking, it is only
shifting. When start dates were moved to mid August, ending dates moved
to before Memorial Day. You still have 10 weeks vacation. The number of
days in the school year IS mandated. So would I rather be
enjoying the great outdoors in the mild weather of June or the
oppressive heat of August? I would choose June. The bill's proponents
and the article claim that parents are the ones pushing for this
legislation. If so, I have a hunch that is primarily economically
well-off parents who want to keep sending their kids to summer camp and
taking their vacations out of state. There is nothing wrong with that,
and I can certainly understand their desire to coordinate their summer
schedules. However, I'd be willing to bet there are just as many
parents out there who would not prefer the mandated later start date,
and indeed would even prefer year-round school. Such as lower-income
families who typically don't send their kids off to summer camp or take
expensive family vacations, and would rather their kids be off the
streets during the high-crime summer months and doing something
productive in school. Sadly those families don't always have the voice
that the Cobb-county families cited in the article do. This legislation
only takes away options for school districts and even families. (Hard
to believe that this is being proposed by Republicans, typically the
party of limited government.) Other draw-backs to the later start date
include high schools not being able to give semester exams before the
winter break. Students tend to drop things and forget them over the
break, and then we expect them to come back in two weeks and cram the
semester's material all over again to prepare for finals? I'm also
behind our state superintendent of schools, who opposes the bill on the
basis that districts would be prevented from designing creative
year-round schedules that actually help children acheive. I agree with
what some of the parents cited say in the article that a child's
education is much more that being in school. Amen. But I don't think
that's an argument for a later start date. It's an argument for shorter
school days, more independent work for students, more
out-of-the-classroom learning through field-work and internships and
on-the-job training as part of the curriculum. But sadly there are too
few people out there who are willing to be creative.