Bill to dictate school start and end dates passes senate.
UPDATED: Bill to dictate school start and end dates passes Alabama Legislature
MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- The Alabama Legislature today gave its final approval to a plan that would ban any city or county school board from starting the next school year before Aug. 20 or from ending it later than May 24.
The plan also would ban any school board from starting the 2013-14 school year for students before Aug. 19.
The Senate voted 25-10 for its version of the plan, House Bill 360 by Rep. Randy Davis, R-Daphne. The House of Representatives last month approved a version of the plan that would have affected school start dates and end dates over four school years. But the House today voted 58-36 to accept the Senate version.
The bill will become law unless Gov. Robert Bentley opposes it.
Opponents of the bill noted that it would take the power to schedule school years from local school boards.
''These are elected school boards," said Sen. Bill Holtzclaw, R-Madison. "These are school boards that have been entrusted with local control. We're usurping that power.''
Supporters said the bill, by lengthening summer breaks, would boost tourism and so raise state sales tax and income tax collections that go to the Education Trust Fund, the main source of state tax dollars for public schools and colleges.
''This is a very sensitive bill that does tread on the school boards' responsibility. If I didn't believe it would generate more dollars ... I assure you I wouldn't be supportive of it,'' said Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the state should be able to dictate the school schedule that strictly? This year's calendar was August 15- May 30. Next year's calendar runs August 8- May 23. If this bill passes, the school district will lose a week. I guess that means either fall or spring break will go away.
Here, in Minnesota, we have a law where schools have to start after Labor Day. It's pushed by the State Fair and the tourism industry. If a school district wants to start earlier than Labor Day, they have to get legislative approval. It does not bother me. In fact, it makes planning when school begins a little easier.
I don't see why they have to dictate an end date also. I don't like that the school year would be shortened. However, I've never heard of "fall break" before. Maybe they felt there were an excessive number of breaks during the school year?
Wow that is strange to me. I guess there is some kind of law here because we don't start until after Labor day, but I don't think they govern the end date. Also I don't like that they are taking the "power" out of the hands of the locally elected officials. I guess there are no year round schools in Alabama? It just doesn't seem that this was well thought out.
Quoting emilyrosenj:Wow that is strange to me. I guess there is some kind of law here because we don't start until after Labor day, but I don't think they govern the end date. Also I don't like that they are taking the "power" out of the hands of the locally elected officials. I guess there are no year round schools in Alabama? It just doesn't seem that this was well thought out.
The students still receive the same amount of instructional time by starting school 30 minutes earlier and ending 30 minutes later.
This saves the school money by cutting cost on electricity and transportation.
We were the first to take that option in our state. After seeing out test scores continue to rise, other districts are now doing the same.
You would think that the kids wouldn't remember as much when given a longer break, but that hasn't been the case.
The only people I've heard of being opposed to it after experiencing it are parents looking for free baby sitting services. Educationally, it has worked great.
It saves money that can be used to benefit the students.
Quoting SouthernMamaof1:
You would think that the kids wouldn't remember as much when given a longer break, but that hasn't been the case.
The only people I've heard of being opposed to it after experiencing it are parents looking for free baby sitting services. Educationally, it has worked great.
It saves money that can be used to benefit the students.
Even though it may not seem like it's hurting students educationally right now, I promise it is. "Summer slide" has been documented through research, and because of it, students who lack access to eductional materials during the summer (i.e., students who are in lower SES settings, students whose parents don't provide reading material or enriching summer activities) start high school an average of two full grade levels below their middle/upper class peers. This "Matthew effect" has been researched not only by literacy experts, but also by general sociologists.
While students can lose 2-3 months of reading capability over the summer, they lose even more math literacy and math comprehension skills. Summer learning opportunities--and the lack of--can be directly tied to poor achievement, especially at the high school level because of the accumulation.
I think it's a good thing, especially in the south. It is so hot in the early part of August (well, all of August really) that children have no business being on school buses for long periods of time. Plus, there are still families that farm in the state (which is the reason for summer vacation in the first place). I hate that our school district pushes it earlier and earlier every year. A state wide mandate of start and stop times will also help with the problem of transfer students. Many times students miss the first few weeks of school because parents assume that a new school will start at the same time as the old school. I don't really see why this is such an issue. I get so sick of the local control argument. This is not something that makes that big of a difference and it will save money.
I teach in South Carolina, and we deal with the heat/farming/tourism issues. It's easier to have a later start date (like this suggests), but the state cannot possibly accommodate every school district with mandated start/end dates. There are way too many variables...
Quoting iuangina:I think it's a good thing, especially in the south. It is so hot in the early part of August (well, all of August really) that children have no business being on school buses for long periods of time. Plus, there are still families that farm in the state (which is the reason for summer vacation in the first place). I hate that our school district pushes it earlier and earlier every year. A state wide mandate of start and stop times will also help with the problem of transfer students. Many times students miss the first few weeks of school because parents assume that a new school will start at the same time as the old school. I don't really see why this is such an issue. I get so sick of the local control argument. This is not something that makes that big of a difference and it will save money.
I am opposed to any cost saving measures that are detrimental to education. I would prefer they raised my taxes.
new here
- chichiwvu
on May. 2, 2012 at 11:24 AM