Sunday, August 22, 2010
School start date deserves debate
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David B. Carson
Carson is the school board chairman for Roanoke City Public Schools.
In Roanoke, schools will open on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
When the vast majority of school systems that surround us begin their school year one to three weeks before Roanoke, the question many ask is why? The answer is that unless a school system has a weather-related waiver from the state, it is required by law to start after Labor Day. This law has been in effect since at least 1986 -- long before the advent of No Child Left Behind and its myopic focus on testing and accountability.
In general, if a school system is closed during a school year for eight or more days because of weather, then it can apply for a waiver to start the school year before Labor Day. Why, one might ask, does essentially every school system that surrounds Roanoke qualify for a waiver and Roanoke does not? There are undoubtedly some geographic differences. There are also some very real economic differences. Roanoke has a free- and reduced-lunch population of 68 percent (the state average is 29 percent). Because it is often true that the only meal a student will receive is what he or she receives at school, it is essential thatchildren get to school and receive the sustenance that both their minds and bodies can receive only in a school setting. In short, we cannot afford to game the system by closing at the hint of a snowflake to be sure we build up the requisite eight days.
Thanks to its teachers and administrators, Roanoke schools are making tremendous gains and providing truly unique opportunities to all of its students. However, all of our schools are not fully accredited, and we are employing every conceivable strategy to provide our students with the best possible education.
Roanoke would like to start its school year before Labor Day, but our efforts to do so have been thwarted at every turn. One reason we might like to start the school year earlier is so that we have the ability -- particularly with respect to any school that is not fully accredited -- to start the instructional year early and to be sure we are devoting adequate time and resources to children who might need additional instructional time to meet the federal and state requirements.
The second reason is to be certain that our instructional base is at the same level as other school jurisdictions in the state and country. In particular, many standardized tests that are crucial for collegiate entrance and advancement are offered on fixed dates in the fall. Compared to students who start the school year before Labor Day, our students necessarily have less instruction under their belt when tests are offered.
Former Del. William Fralin and current Del. William Cleaveland both have offered legislation that would allow school divisions the flexibility to start the school year before Labor Day. In one bill offered by Fralin, school divisions would have had the flexibility to start before Labor Day if they had one or more schools that were not fully accredited. This bill never made it out of committee. This past year, Cleaveland introduced a bill that would have allowed solely Roanoke the ability to open before Labor Day. As with essentially every single bill that has been introduced regarding amending the existing start-date legislation, it did not make it out of committee.
Leaving aside the insanity of not permitting important legislation that is clearly in the best interests of children to advance to a full debate on the House and Senate floors, opponents of any effort to amend the start-date legislation point to the economic impact of opening schools before Labor Day. In short, the tourism industry wants the state open for business up, through and including Labor Day. That is an admirable goal, but allowing at least Roanoke the ability to open when its school leaders think is best for the education of its student populace will not adversely affect the tourism industry's ability to make an extra buck.
At a more basic level, at what point do we balance what is best for the education of our children against squeezing the last dollar out of a three-day weekend? Regardless of how you fall on the issue, can we not at least agree it is an issue that should be openly debated by our elected representatives in Richmond, as opposed to being quietly shuffled aside legislatively as it has been for more than a decade?
