Incredibly, the new school year begins next week for public schools in Omaha. I simply do not understand the rush to start when the weather is at its hottest and there are so many outside activities that children and families can enjoy. I’m not the curmudgeon that believes school should begin the day after Labor Day and end the Friday before Memorial Day, as it supposedly did in the past. The reality for me, as a student and a teacher, was that we began slightly before Labor Day and finished in the first or second week of June. I actually graduated from high school on the ninth of June a long time ago. Some of my grandchildren attend school in Washington State. They begin the last week of August and finish the second week of June. Washington is in line with most states on the east and west coasts in regard to school start dates.
It seems like it has become a kind of contest among local school districts to be the first to begin the school year. There has long been discussion that a longer school year might be beneficial to student learning. However, the schools that begin early also end early. Summer began for local public school students on May 23rd for the 2013-2014 school year. So, more instructional time does not seem to be a reason for the early start. Many of the local Catholic schools begin the last week of August or the first week of September and end in late May. I am coming to the conclusion that, like just about everything else that is wrong with education these days, that the early start is a result of the pressure of high stakes testing. Districts might hold the position that cramming as much learning as possible into students before the Christmas break will result in higher test scores in the second school term. It would be interesting to conduct a study to determine if this is actually true. If this is the case, it confirms the notion that schools orient everything around testing and that school time after testing is not as highly valued. That would be unfortunate as every teacher plans for student learning every day and school policy makers should respect and value that.
Going back to my concerns about the summer activities that are compromised or eliminated by the early start of school, I think about those outside of the school business who are affected by such scheduling. Tourism is an important source of revenue for cities and states. Many vacations center around water and/or mountain activities, which are most enjoyable in warm weather. The warmest weather often occurs in August. Eliminating the month of August from the traveling schedules of families must certainly be detrimental to the tourism industry. Many high school and college students work in the tourism industry to provide tuition and spending money needed during the coming school year. Their jobs end and they have to attend school, so their opportunity to earn is diminished by the early starts. Likewise, the earning power of entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, and others associated with the tourism industry must also suffer. Those last days of May and the first two weeks of June are often cool and rainy, especially in areas that are popular for summer water and mountain vacations. It seems to me that it would be better to remain in school during that time, and free up late summer for vacation travel.
Many parents that I know have expressed dissatisfaction with the early school start, but do not believe that they can do anything about it. In actuality, I imagine that the only way this situation will be reversed will be when parents protest and do not comply with the current schedules. That said, I do wish everyone a happy start to the new school year!
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