Pushing the school year start until after Labor Day is one of those conservative outrage items that old Boomers like to point to and yell “in my day we did things right and started after Labor Day.” I really could give two shits when the school year starts. Starting before Labor Day is not some grand liberal conspiracy to have extra time to indoctrinate the children. The actual length of the school year doesn’t change. Students will still be required to attend a minimum of 1,060 hours of class instruction in a school year. So all Senator Hocker’s Senate Bill 204 does is make sure students are in school until late June, where right now the last pupil day is on or near June 9.
So, congrats, I guess.
WHERE IS THE BILL NOW? Out of Committee in the Senate, ready for action as of 1/24/2020
DEMOCRATIC SPONSORS — McBride Jaques Brown Ennis Cooke Dorsey-Walker K.Johnson
REPUBLICAN SPONSORS — Hocker Gray Lawson RIcharson M.Smith
YES VOTES — SENATE — /// HOUSE —
NO VOTES — SENATE — /// HOUSE —
ABSENT —
NOT VOTING —
Under current policy, all districts are empowered to set that district’s calendar. Senator Hocker knows Cape and IR school boards are authorized to begin the school year when they choose. Before Labor Day or after, the ball is in their court. Why Senator Hocker wants to handcuff all school districts is a mystery to me. What’s more, school boards are elected, so what is the Senator’s real agenda in this matter?
Maybe he wants everyone to be able to honor the contributions of organized labor?