Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Editorial: Back to school rules don't serve students
Virginia puts the needs of amusement parks before the needs of its young people.
From the RoundTable blog
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The Kings Dominion law has nothing to do with royalty. Twenty-two years ago, state lawmakers swore fealty not to king or queen but to amusement parks and tourism. They sacrificed the education of the commonwealth's young people to appease their campaign-contributing lords.
The law ended local school boards' authority to decide when their school years should start. By legislative edict, classes must begin after Labor Day.
The tourism industry wanted students to be available for family trips one last long weekend at the end of the summer. It also wanted high schoolers available to work at theme parks dishing up snow cones and sweeping the grounds after all those visitors.
Fortunately for local schools, there are a few exceptions. More than 70 localities this year earned a waiver, including many school systems in Southwest Virginia. Most cited bad weather in past years. The state allows them to start a week or two early as a cushion for snow days.
That particular exemption sometimes leads to ludicrous class cancellation over a few stray snowflakes, but that is what it takes.
School leaders want students back before Labor Day for good reason. The Standards of Learning and Advanced Placement exams take place in the spring. A few extra days in the classroom give teachers a little more time to prepare students for those critical tests.
A few lawmakers see students as more than natural resources the tourism industry can exploit. They regularly introduce legislation to let localities decide when to start school. Those bills just as regularly go nowhere.
This year's, which Roanoke's Del. William Fralin sponsored, died in the House education committee. No doubt its death had nothing to do with the thousands of dollars Kings Dominion and other beneficiaries of the law pump into legislators' campaign coffers.
Students in Bedford, Franklin, Montgomery and Roanoke counties will hit the books before the end of the month. They are the lucky ones, even if they do not think so.
