Some Lessons Missed With Early School Start

Allen A. McBride

A few spring-like days the past couple of weeks have reminded us that summer is not that far away. And when Alabamians think of summer, we think of green trees, ice cream, watermelon, kids playing baseball, swimming, going to the park, going to the lake or the beach, going to camp, going to grandmother's - and going to school. Yep, going to school - not "summer school" for students who might need to catch up or want to get ahead, but mandatory classes for a new school year.

Some of us might remember going back to school after Labor Day. That's nothing but a "Midsummer Night's Dream" for kids in Alabama today. Our children have gone back to school earlier and earlier each year, and the number of days students spend in class has not changed in the years since this "calendar creep" began. Last year, more than 30,000 Alabama kids were sitting in classrooms during July. Only four school systems statewide had yet to begin "fall" semester classes by Aug. 15. During the hottest months of the year, kids were going to school in nonair-conditioned buses and going to class in air-conditioned buildings while the state school superintendent talked of shutting off that air-conditioning to save scarce education dollars.

School report cards released by the state Department of Education do not indicate early school starts equal higher test scores. The average Stanford Achievement Test rank for systems starting class on or after Aug. 15, 2002, was actually slightly higher than that of systems beginning before then. Obviously, what students do in school is far more important than when they go to school.

Statistics show that school attendance is low in July and August. In fact, had Amendment One passed last fall, official attendance counts would have been taken the first 20 days after Labor Day rather than the first 40 days of the school year, as required under current law.

Last fall, the state Board of Education recommended schools begin classes no earlier than Aug. 9 this year to help comply with federal laws requiring the state to provide standardized test results to all school systems prior to the first day of the school year. Unfortunately, a number of school systems have chosen to ignore that recommendation, with at least one system planning to have kids back in school on July 29.

As president of the Association of Alabama Camps, I support our state's church camps, Scout camps, independent camps, 4-H camps, YMCA camps, as well as Camp ASCCA (Alabama's nationally recognized camp for special-needs children). There are 90 to 95 such camps in Alabama, all but five or six of which are sponsored by nonprofit organizations, and all of which serve Alabama's children and their families. Camps are obviously providing valuable educational experiences to children year after year. If they weren't, we wouldn't have campers or camps. It has been said that summer camp is one of the last places in our country at which children can begin each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and end each day with a prayer.

Although camps support the critical role our schools play in educating Alabama's children, we all realize that responsibility does not belong to schools alone. Churches, families, friends, communities, recreation departments, civic clubs, Scouts, athletic programs, employers, as well as camps, all contribute to the overall education of our children. I doubt those who are reading this would be where they are today were it not for what they learned in school - but I also doubt that any of us would be where we are today if all that we knew was what we learned in a classroom.

In order to continue to provide many of the programs that complement the education our children receive in school, organizations and businesses must have the time to staff and operate their programs. For quite a few generations in America, that time has been in the summer months. College-age staff is readily available only during the summer, and it is simply not possible to offer the current wide range of summer opportunities to parents and children during various breaks that are scattered throughout the year and that vary from school system to school system. Summer camps, art and reading programs, youth sports leagues, vacation Bible school and more are being provided for our kids at no cost to state government. Their effectiveness is proved by the fact they survive and thrive on their own. All they need from the state is time to do what they do.

When a program loses three weeks of a 10-week season, the number of children served is cut by 30 percent.

With our children in mind, legislators in both chambers and both parties have sponsored the School Start Date Act of 2004, and the bill has already been voted out of the House Education Committee. Camps support this effort by lawmakers to allow Alabama children to wait until Aug. 15 to begin classes each year. Not only does this bill give children back their summers, it also helps give them every educational opportunity that the people of our state can make available.

Mark Twain said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education." Passage of this legislation will help Alabama's children get their schooling and their education.

Allen McBride is the president of the Association of Alabama Camps. McBride and his family own and operate Camp Mac, a summer camp for boys and girls in the Cheaha mountains near Munford. Camp Mac was established in 1948 by then-Talladega County school superintendent, E.A. McBride. His e-mail address is allen@campmac.com.

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