Lawmakers in Virginia and Maryland seem to be headed toward freeing local school systems of the restriction that they not start classes until after Labor Day. We hope they succeed. It never made sense for politicians in Richmond and Annapolis to be dictating school calendars.
School systems struggled to meet the artificial limits of a post-Labor Day opening day. Spring break was curtailed, teacher planning days were eliminated, and planned snow days became not a backstop but a gamble. Principals and teachers complained that students were put at an academic disadvantage because there was less instruction time. Most hurt were poor and minority students for whom summer can be not an idyllic time of days at the beach or riding Ferris wheels but empty days of idleness and going hungry. Children need more time in school, not less, and a calendar built on the long-gone days when children needed to be out of school during the summer to help on the family farm makes no sense in today’s increasingly competitive world economy.
Legislation giving local school boards more flexibility to decide when classes should be held has advanced in the Maryland and Virginia general assemblies, and supporters are optimistic.