From the office of the State Comptroller:
Citing the benefits to Maryland families, small businesses, and tourism overall, Comptroller Peter Franchot today called for a statewide policy change to have all school systems in the state begin classes after Labor Day weekend. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan and members of the local business community joined the Comptroller at the announcement.
“The chance for families to spend precious time together and to build those lifelong memories during that final, end-of-summer vacation has been lost by the decision to begin school a week, or even ten days, before Labor Day,” said Comptroller Franchot. “Not only does this cut into the opportunity for Marylanders to spend more time together as a family, but it also has a negative impact on small businesses that rely on the tourist trade. During these tough economic times, we need to be doing all that we can to support the tourism sector and find ways to foster even more growth.”
With nationally renowned vacation destinations like Ocean City, Deep Creek Lake, and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, tourism has grown into the fourth largest industry in the state, with Maryland welcoming over 32 million domestic travelers last year. The tourism sector employs over 340,000 Marylanders and the summer months are particularly busy statewide. For example, an August week in Ocean City can generate almost $5 million in State and local revenues; while, nearly $3 million is generated during a holiday weekend. Other states that have adopted this policy, including neighboring Virginia, have documented the benefits to their state and local economies.
Instead of reducing the school year, the Comptroller is confident that the state’s school systems would be able to adjust their calendars while maintaining the 180-day academic year. The flexibility of adjusting winter and spring breaks or eliminating some of the numerous days off currently built into the calendar would be left to the school systems
“Our school system has been rated the top in the nation for several years now and our teachers, administrators and support staff are the most talented in the country. I am confident they can adjust the school calendar in order to provide for a start after Labor Day,” said Comptroller Franchot. “And the best part is that doing this doesn’t cost anything…it will actually generate more than $4 million in additional revenue for our state and local governments. This would be a win for Maryland’s families and our economy.”
This has nothing to do with families and everything to do with money!! Why doesn’t he come into the classroom in June and try to teach kids!!
With air conditioning in every school this should not be an issue.
Why not cut out all these extra in-service days that most staff don’t attend? Wh ynot cut out all the Jewish holidays….we don’t get off for Muslim holidays…most of the county celebrates Christian holidays.. thats how it used to be. If necessary have 1/2 day inservices so we can count them as school days and teachers can still have meetings and get grades done at the end of the quarter. Just some thoughts!
The problem with your suggestions is that they make too much sense. Shame on you.
All teachers and other professional staff HAVE to attend the (useless) in service days. It’s not an option. Most of the time, they are not relevant, just an excuse for the overpaid administrators to justify their jobs.
Correct on both counts.
Why not get rid of all religous holidays?
have service days on saturdays pay the teachers some OT or have them in the summer.
or maybe have year round school with say the month of august off and every so many weeks give everyone off a week.
The school board doesn’t want to pay us for what we already do. What makes you think they will pay us extra to come in on Saturdays or over the summer?
There is definitely not working AC in all 53 schools… Not even close
In Harford County, 1998 was the first year school started before Labor Day. Superintendent, Jeffrey Grotsky, was Jewish and 1998 was the first year schools were closed for the Jewish holidays, and because Sept 1 was a Tuesday, Labor Day was Sept 7, meaning if the traditional calendar was followed, school would not have started until Sept 8. With closing the schools on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, the kids would not have had a full 5-day week of school until October, so it was determined to start school on August 31, so that there would be one full week of school before October.
The idea of starting before Labor Day made sense in that case, but when Labor Day is earlier, it does not make sense. The problem is not in closing schools for the Jewish holidays, but those dates, along with the timing of Labor Day were the original justification, and no one has ever considered that the decision regarding the first day of school needs to be made based on when Labor Day is, and in that case, school would only need to start before Labor Day on years when Sept 1 falls on a Tuesday or Wednesday, and at that, school would be starting on August 30 or 31, NOT the third week of August.
Personally I think we should go to year round school (obviously this would require that all schools have functioning air conditioning.) Basically at the end of each marking period they get 2 weeks off and then at the end of the school year they get 4 weeks off.
There’s always a lot of time wasted at the beginning of the school year (especially in the younger grades) because kids forget so much of what they learned the previous year and after having 2.5 months off straight it takes so time to get their heads back into being in school instead of doing what they want all day long.
This also allows families to be able to space out vacations throughout the year and would probably make it more affordable for a lot of families to go places. Instead of trying to cram everything into a couple in the summer time they can take a week and go someplace in the off season when it’s usually cheaper and less crowds. Take Disney as an example…in the summertime room rates are at the highest price for the year and the lines are ridiculous. In January or February the room rates are much lower and the lines are practically non-existent for a lot of rides. Florida in that time of the year is usually pretty nice (and sure beats the heat and humidity of a Florida summer…)
I didn’t think I would like george’s year round deal. i’ve heard about it before, but thinking more about it, once people got used to it I bet people may like it – as long as there were definite times for breaks set up well in advance and teachers did not assign stuff over the breaks as summer is now. I guess the only people to really not make out on this would be summer camp type people who depend on the huge block of kids being off at the same.
Let us all remember that most schools still follow a traditional calendar with school going from September to June and a long summer vacation follows. This model was developed for the agrarian society of the past when students helped on the family farm and were needed at home during the busiest times of the year. (In some rural areas of the country, local school calendars still provide breaks for farm work.) Economic needs — not educational needs — dictated the school year.
Decades later, and life in general has changed: family time has decreased, many women with young children are working outside of the home,society is more diverse, income inequity is growing — and technology access widens the gap, drugs, crime, disease, and poverty make the world a dangerous place for children and families.
But time in school has remained constant. The September to June school calendar was not designed to enhance instruction then, and it does not do so now. Changes in school schedules can come from many directions. Unfortunately, economics, in this case tourism, is one of them.
If we want our kids to be the best, and be prepared to take on the responsibilities of adulthood, they must spend more time learning. Long summer vacations may become history. Most students do not spend long, lazy summers, enjoying the wonders of nature. More often they are involved in camp programs, jobs, or other organized activities. The hazy memory of “summertime” may already be history. Working parents often cannot spend additional time with their children even in the summer. Many parents can’t afford to spend vast sums of money on their kids camps or other scheduled activities. However, summer entertainment for kids and families is big bucks for many states and businesses.
Politicians come and go, unless idiots keep re-electing them. Politicians need to be reminded that our kids needs a top flight education in order for them to be competitive in the market place. Good jobs are becoming scarce and high tech is the future. Most countries have a longer academic year. It is time for US to consider changes on the school calender.
So, American students are playing catch up with respect to students from nearly every developed country in the world and we have a terrible deficit of engineers/scientists emerging from our schools, but for the sake of helping business we should start school after Labor Day? I’m at a loss for words. Sorry, but I’m I’m the “School Year Round” crowd. I have 2 school age kids now and a 3rd on the way. Get em’ in there and keep em’ in there. You could go to school 12 months a year and still have 4-6 weeks off throughout the year. It’s time our students are no longer at the bottom of the list.
I hear what you’re saying regarding “playing catch up”, but more time in the classroom does not necessarily equate to getting a “better education”.
You’re all in the “School Year Round” crowd, but I’m in the “Quality, not Quantity” crowd. We kicked ass in the past (when school years began after Labor Day) and we can do it again.
It takes more than just sticking your kid in the classroom to get an education. If you rely on “the system” too much, the “education” can very easily become an “indoctrination”. Parents need to be involved in the education of their kids, and the FAMILY UNIT needs to be preserved and respected.
The schedule I mentioned actually doesn’t really add any more days to the school year. They still end up with 10 weeks off which is about what they get now in the summer. Instead of having that time all at once it’s spread out over the year. Kids don’t spend 2.5 months forgetting half of what they learned the previous year and teachers don’t have to spend the first 2 weeks or so of the new school year reteaching what was already taught. Sounds like better quality to me.
Those 2 week breaks at the end of the marking periods can also be scheduled to fall during the current Christmas and Easter breaks (sorry, I mean winter and spring breaks) and the summer break can be scheduled to include when the state fair is running without much problem. That would increase the amount of time kids spend learning in the classroom a little bit, but given how the breaks are spaced out there should be less being wasted (and speaking of wasting time…I could get into the whole block scheduling debate, but that’s a bit off topic.)
Other than the issue of some schools not having air conditioning I don’t see how this schedule is a bad thing. It gives families significantly more flexibility for scheduling vacations (or staycations), trips to the grandparents, etc. Most businesses have some sort of seniority system in place to determine who can take their vacation when. That can make it difficult for some people to even take time off in the summer since all the senior employees get first crack at that time frame.
The current school calendar was designed entirely to give kids off in the summer so they could work on their family farm in the late 19th century. We’re in the 21st century now and most kids have never been on a farm let alone work on one all summer. It’s silly to not make a change that would benefit nearly everyone just because all of us as adults have found memories of spending all summer running around outside with our friends (most kids don’t even do that anymore…they’re sitting around inside playing video games.)
“…flexibility of adjusting winter and spring breaks…” Do you mean CHRISTMAS and EASTER?
Jeez….the political correctness has just gone way too far when we start generalizing the Christian holidays that were the reason for the friggin time off in the first place.
Let’s just call them “Kwanzanimas” and “The Walking Dead Day”. Everyone feel better now?
Personally I like to practice the Feast of Saturnalia and the rebirth of the planet that occurs shortly after the equinox. It’s been going on a long time before the political correctness of the Roman Emperor who decided to rename these ancient pagan traditions for the sake of a new religion to unify his control over the empire. Christ supposedly was born during lambing season… exactly when does lambing season occur in the Northern Hemisphere?
I lean torwards Bacchanalia myself…
I think the general “nudge” towards starting the school year earlier and earlier over the years has generally been a bad thing. Don’t get me wrong, this call by Franchot is all about the money….plain an simple. But, I think there’s something to be said for starting after the Labor Day Holiday for the sake of the kids.
I am frankly blown away by all the recorded calls we got from Teri Kranefeld (sp?) reminding us of the days the kids were going to be off “so teachers can do some very important planning”. My wife (former teacher) chuckles at those messages. Maybe take some of those days away and/or make them half-day sessions? Before all the teachers start to bash me, I’ll have you know that I think teachers are some of the most under-appreciated workers out there. Thank God they do what they do, because I sure as hell could not.
My understanding is that those early dismissal days are necessary to even out planning times. Secondary teachers get at least 45 minutes of planning per day that is untouched. In the elementary levels, teachers get the 45 on paper…but IEP meetings, parent meetings, team meetings, grade level meetings, etc. are always conducted within that “planning” time. I know this because my neighbor teaches 4th grade. I hate having to round up childcare for those afternoons, but I think I understand why they have them.
“Planning periods” are not always untouched in the high schools. It’s not at all uncommon for high school teachers to end up spending their planning period covering another class or in meetings with administration and/or parents. That certainly doesn’t happen all the time, but whenever it does it ends up being extra work for teachers outside of the school day (i.e. unpaid work.)
Yes…but your planning period is 80 minutes a day…not 45, so even if TWO of your plannings is taken a week, you still get more time than elementary teachers for planning. 45 x 5= 225; 80 x 3=240. I have taught elementary and secondary, and I, by far, have more planning time in secondary than I ever had in elementary AND I don’t have to handwrite report card comments. I do spend more time grading, though, but less time planning because it is fewer lessons, so it balances out. One is not easier than the other–just different.
Pizzle-
As a teacher, I would love to get rid of most of those days for “planning” as well because most of the professional development we get is laughable. The only valuable time is when they leave you alone in your room so you CAN actually plan for your students.
“And the best part is that doing this doesn’t cost anything…it will actually generate more than $4 million in additional revenue for our state and local governments.”
Lets consider the majority of families, one or two working adults with kids, on income that is (mostly) unrelated to the school year. They budget a vacation every year, maybe 1-2 weeks, staying within both their fiscal and vacation-days limits (you wouldn’t want to use all your vacation at the beach and then have to work Christmas Eve). How is an extra long summer going to make them spend more? They’re not getting paid any extra, so the vacation budget isn’t any larger, and they’re not getting any extra vacation days (excluding the small percentage of the population that are 9 month employees in the schools or retired parents with kids). The kids will still be hanging out at home (or at a sitter’s or camp, which costs the parents more money), but they won’t be at the beach the entire time because the parents have to work.
This isn’t the Hamptons where everyone can just chill on the beach for 2-3 months without worrying about paying the bills.
I went to public schools in Western Md., and I never started school before Labor Day. Why was it changed? It’s ridiculous and totally unneccesary to go back before Labor Day.
Being in the school system for 27 years now I have seen school begin after Labor Day and before Labor Day. I can say that I think the students and parents are better prepared AFTER Labor Day! Vacations aside, many children are involved with the MD State Fair which is usually held the last week of August – when school in in session. I agree that the teachers have too many “inservice/professional development” days during the year which could be removed to shorten the year to get in those all-important 180 days. I also am not totally opposed to year-round school knowing that at the end of each quarter there would be a 2-week break in addition to “winter and spring” break. I do think Comptroller Franchot’s main objective is money, not family time, but that could be a good thing – because mayben then the teacher’s would finally get the raise they have not gotten for the past 4 years!!!!
How about getting the folks in Annapolis to change the law from 180 days in school to 175 days and start school after labor day.Maybe they can take it up during the special session after they raise taxes and pass Mike Miller’s gambling bill.If they run out of time they can have a special, special session.
Personally, I think the idea of year round school is a good idea. When you think about it, you still get almost the same amount of time you have off during the summer, but spread out throughout the school year. Part of the problem with having 2.5 months off from school is that there really any reinforcement of what was taught. The way the curriculum is set up, the teacher is supposed to pick up where the previous grade’s teacher left off. Most of the kids have a hard time trying to recall stuff they last learned in June. I think having year round school would abate that issue. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice to take a little mini-vacation in December or October if you wanted to? Definitely something to consider.
I’m not a fan of the year round school plan for two key reasons.
First, I really think the argument that kids forget what they learned over the summer is being overblown (not just by you). When kids get 4 or 5 days off, they come back the same way. Any break longer than a couple of days will require the teacher to spend a day jogging their memory. Whether that break is 2 months of 2 weeks, you’ll have the same problem (but with multiple 2 week breaks, you’ll actually have that problem more often).
Second, while it is true that the initial purpose for summer break was for farm kids to help out during harvest season, that long break is still beneficial for a large group of kids (at least the older kids). How many kids work a summer job? How many would be able to find employment anywhere when their only stretches of availability span two weeks at a time? Having a job is as much of a learning experience as school, and removing that large break takes that away for a large group of kids (or forces them to work DURING the months they are in school, taking away from their academics and athletics).
Forgot to mention–Year round school is also a huge financial drain. You’d have to add hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not more) to the facilities budget to PAY for the air conditioning (after paying millions to install it in buildings that lack it), and you’d have at least that much to add to the personnel budget (for cafeteria staff, etc). It would also be a hard sell for the teachers unless a pay increase was worked out, because many of them rely on summer jobs to make ends meet.
I Left,
You have some valid points there that I did not consider. I actually think it’s good for every high school and college student to try to work some sort of job if they can do so (Of course academics MUST come first). It is a good learning experience, and it you teaches you work ethic, and important life skills and lessons.
Don’t forget that teachers are expected to continue their educations and many of them do so in the summer. Few teachers sit around the pool during the summer drinking pina coladas.
Vinnygret,
I hope that’s not what you think I was implying in my comment. Being an educator myself, I do not think teachers sit around and do nothing all summer. Summer is a very busy time, grad school classes, summer jobs, in some cases two summer jobs. Summer is the only time some of them can make ends meet. Unfortunately, the pay isn’t decent enough for educators, and there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon.
I guess he has never taught in June and does not understand the high stakes testing
Nothing is going to change with the new Core Curriculum coming out in a couple of years. The testing is going to change from once a year to maybe 3-4 times a year.
When I was in school we always started after Labor Day and got out of school around the second week of June. Not sure what changed after all that time except teachers seem to have a lot more planning time during the school year. It would be nice if planning could be done all summer long that way teachers benefit. Not sure logistically it works but it does make sense. Why doesn’t the state investigate the states and private schools that already do thiss.
Private schools are not forced to give all the tests public schools do. Ever notice that virtually no private schools are on the four period schedule. These are factors that contribute to private school success, less time spent worrying about useless testing and a schedule that maximizes classroom instruction to help students achieve academic success.
True. Finland has one of the best performing school systems in the world and they have abandoned standardized testing. When teachers are allowed to actually teach, dividends are paid. When they worry about a test, you get mediocrity because they are forced to teach to it.
You can’t plan a whole year ahead… Things happen that would throw it off necessitating more planning. Perhaps a lesson took longer, a lesson sucked, or the kids needed re-teaching! Not practical or useful!
99% of the professional development is useless…just ask any teacher!!
^. Totally agree with the above statement! In fact half of teachers ball out those days because they are so painful and boring!
Interesting that Franchot’s idea is being labeled on these posts as being “all about money”. Isn’t it about time somebody in Annapolis had an idea about money that reduced the amount being spent rather than increasing what they take from us?
An elected Democrat in Annapolis with an idea to reduce spending. What planet is he from?
Alex how does states telling local BOE’s how to construct their school calander save money? It is about making tourism dollars for Worchester county!