Indiana

Labor Pains

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Although things have quieted down over at the Indiana General Assembly, there are still some bills of interest worth paying attention to, one of which deals with the start of school.

Last week the Senate approved a bill that would push the start of school back to after Labor Day in 2012 and schools would end by June 10.  Private schools and year-round schools would be exempt.  The measure in the House right now.

At the risk of sounding like my late grandfather, back when I was in school in Chicago we started after Labor Day and finished around June 5 or 6.  And somehow we managed to turn out just fine.

There is no reason to start school in early August.  Schools used to start early because of I-Step testing, but I-Step has been moved to the Spring.   Some school administrators also argue they need to start school early so kids can complete their finals before winter break.

Once again, I’m about to sound like my grandfather here, but I can clearly recall my school district giving us finals two weeks after the Holiday break and everyone turned out just fine.  In fact we preferred it that way so we had to do some studying over break and not forget everything.  We also didn’t have a fall break.

By starting after Labor Day we got to enjoy our summers and the schools got to save on air conditioning because the number of ungodly hot days were kept down to a bear minimum.

It seems like a win-win situation that’s very easy to accomplish.  Maybe that’s why it will take forever to get done.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 09, 2010 (boomark / email).