Why so early?

School openings should be pushed back - to about now

Published September 3, 2007 at midnight

Text size

More Editorials

Labor Day.

For decades this holiday marked the official end of summer vacation. The long weekend was time for one last neighborhood picnic, one final family outing or trip. The next day, kids went back to school.

But now, Labor Day is just the first interruption in the school year's stream of five-day weeks. Classes for most students started two or three weeks ago.

Besides ending traditional summer prematurely, the practical effect of accelerating the beginning of the school year is to confine many students and teachers indoors without air conditioning on some of the hottest days of the year. The result: A growing clamor to spend millions of dollars retrofitting older buildings with cooling systems.

We think that would involve money better spent on improving instruction and student performance. The ideal solution - although one not easy to achieve - would be a uniform start date for Colorado's schools, one that restores the traditional place of Labor Day in family calendars. Trade the dog days of August for generally milder days in early June.

Last year Michigan enacted legislation pushing the opening of school throughout that state until after Labor Day. Minnesota already had such a law. Now Pennsylvania is considering following suit.

In Colorado, local control by elected school boards is much more ingrained and guarded, and we're not prepared to endorse an exception in this case by advocating that lawmakers override local autonomy. But the reality is that they may have to consider such a move if the creep toward earlier opening dates continues.

Couldn't the Colorado Association of School Boards try to coordinate a move toward a later opening date so individual districts don't worry about having their students put at a disadvantage with tests?

Yes, tests. The most popular justification in Colorado for advancing the opening of school in recent years is state achievement testing - CSAP. With each school's continued existence ultimately at stake, educators say they need as much time as they can get before the testing occurs in February and March.

To that we must ask: Isn't the discomfort of overheated classrooms a huge distraction for both students and teachers? Educational research indicates it is. Higher quality instruction would accomplish as much, if not more, in a shorter period of time, especially under conditions more conducive to attentive learning.

Moving state testing back to April, we must point out, also would provide relief from the heat while preserving the extra preparation time that August openings now provide. But this approach would require tests that can be graded in less than the four to five months it takes to complete grading the current CSAP battery. Is it really impossible to produce a test that can be scored in less time?

Educational considerations, of course, are not the only points in this "heated" debate. Economic impact studies show that starting school in August is hurting tourism in a number of states, adversely affecting recreational businesses, and reducing tax revenues. Air conditioning the schools won't resolve those problems.

The first Tuesday in September holds the answer.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News