Bill requires post-Labor Day school start

Judy Putnam
6/24/05
Michigan Live: Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- Summer vacation would last until September under a measure moving in the Legislature that prohibits schools from starting classes until after Labor Day.

A bill mandating the post-Labor Day start date won easy approval, 12-2, Thursday in the House Natural Resources, Great Lakes, Land Use and Environment Committee, which handles tourism issues.

"The summer in Michigan is awfully short. Why should we make it any shorter?'' said the bill sponsor, Rep. Ed Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe. He said his bill would allow "one last gasp of summer.''

With assignment to the tourism committee, the House is treating it as a tourism industry issue rather than an education issue.

An array of business groups, theme parks and hotel and restaurant owners lined up to support the measure, saying it will help supply student workers during a key part of the tourism season. It also gives families more opportunity to go Up North, resulting in more sales tax revenue for the state.

School groups are opposed, saying each community should decide the start date for themselves. Plus, kids are already committed to starting early with activities like football practice and band camp, some opponents argued.

A similar push in the late `90s ended with a 1999 compromise requiring school districts to at least offer a four-day Labor Day weekend.

Rep. David Palsrok, R-Manistee, the chair of the committee, said although the post-Labor Day start has been promoted for years by business and tourism groups, it's more likely to pass now. In 2003, lawmakers lifted a requirement that schools be in session 180 days a year. A 1,098-hour requirement remains.

That was aimed at allowing districts to try four-day school weeks, but it also gives districts the option of shortening the school year to allow for a post-Labor Day start while still ending in early June.

''It does give locals a little more flexibility,'' Palsrok said. He said he's uncertain when the full House will take up the legislation.

Don Wotruba, a lobbyist for the Michigan Association of School Boards, said boards have the ability to start after Labor Day now.

"This decision is best left up to local school boards,'' he said.

A decade ago, state law required a 150-day minimum for the school year, but that was ratcheted up by school reform laws aimed at improving student achievement. It peaked at 180 days in 2001-02, with many schools opting to start in August. That trend has begun to reverse with the lifting of the 180-day minimum.

Gaffney said his own district is shortening Christmas break by two days in order to start after Labor Day this fall, while another district added 12 minutes to each school day to push back the start date.

Rep. Fred Miller, D-Mount Clemens, was one of two Democrats to oppose the legislation. He said it's not going to help students.

"How much learning is going to take place in the last 12 minutes of the day?'' he said.

Camille Jourden-Mark, vice president and general manager of Michigan's Adventure, a Muskegon amusement park, said upset tourists have left notes at her theme park when they show up the week before Labor Day only to find the place closed.

She said school siphons off so many of her workers that the park has to close Monday through Thursday, before opening again on the Friday before Labor Day.

"It's like a terrible Wally World experience,'' she said.