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Too hot for school in August
Coosa County Schools closed completely one day this week, due to air conditioning problems. Other schools are forced to close early because of cooling systems being over tasked. Precious classroom instructional time is being lost and our schools are paying a premium in cooling costs. All problems that could be eliminated or greatly reduced with a statewide later school start date. A later school start date would not only reduce the cooling costs for schools and return precious education dollars to our teachers, students and classrooms, but it would increase the excitement of children returning to school and infuse classrooms with energy and interest in learning. A luxury our teachers and students deserve. Regardless of when the school year begins, students across Alabama receive a state mandated 180 days of instruction. Some of our school systems began the year as early as August 2, while others won't begin until August 15. Superintendents and educators know attendance numbers are low in August. That is why they came to the legislature and asked that we pass a law to not count attendance, and thus determine their state funding levels, until after Labor Day. Since we all seem to agree kids are not in classes as they should be in August why are we wasting valuable instructional days by starting the school year in early-August? I thought I would learn the answers during the meetings I held with the School Start Date Task Force. But what I learned was the following: The latest poll measuring opinions relating to the school calendar found two out of three Alabama voters preferred a third week of August or later school start date. The poll was conducted by Southern Opinion Research and released by SaveAlabamaSummers.org. No evidence exists to support the notion that a school calendar configuration impacts academic performance. The majority of the top performing academic states in the nation begin the school year in late-August or early-September. Regardless of when the school year begins parents have to find child care for 81 weekdays and research showed that child care during the summer is more educational than child care one day here and one day there -- and is more cost effective. Early-August school start dates don't necessarily mean the students in the early-start districts receive more days of instruction before the state standardized test than those in late start districts as all districts end within 10 days of each other. Many other states already have laws governing the start of the school year and report the later start date has not hurt academic performance in any way. States include, Florida, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Early-August school start dates create headaches, heartaches and hardships for Alabama students, families and teachers. With no evidence to show this craziness is actually better for our children we can not continue to sit by and do nothing. It's time we put an end to the fighting and set a school start date that works for our students, teachers and families. I urge everyone interested in this issue to call their state representative and state senator and ask them to join forces and stop early-August school-start dates during the next legislative session. This is an issue too important to post-pone another year.
State Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, represents House Distrcit 28.
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