Strayhorn: Later school start could save millions

Comptroller says beginning Texas school year after Labor Day could save at least $790 million.

By Mike Ward

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

At least $790 million a year could be saved in lost wages, tourist revenues and in added costs to schools and teachers if Texas' school year started later, a new report released Wednesday by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn shows.

Strayhorn announced she will form a task force to study the issue, with an eye to asking the Legislature in January to move the start of school to after Labor Day.

"The benefits of stretching the school year have not been proved, but, what we do know, it's costing Texas $790 million annually," she said at a press conference outside downtown Austin's Pease Elementary School, which she attended as a child.

"The school year is more than two weeks longer now than it was 50 years ago, but the number of instructional days is the same, or even fewer in some cases."

Strayhorn, 64, is a former civics and economics teacher at McCallum High School who went on to become the first female president of the Austin school board in 1976. She has been state comptroller since 1999.

Strayhorn's report calculates the losses through a variety of factors, including increased ucosts at schools during the hottest month of the summer, increased day-care expenses for teachers and other working Texans, lost income for teenagers with part-time jobs and teachers with summer jobs who must quit early to begin classes, and migrant workers who are forced to chose between leaving their jobs early to enroll their children in school or letting them miss the first few weeks of classes.

Strayhorn also cited losses at tourist destinations — including Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, Six Flags in Arlington, and the Alamo in San Antonio— because their summer season is shortened.

Under a state law dating to 1949, Texas students are supposed to be in classes at least 180 days a year. In 1984, the Legislature required all schools to start after Sept. 1, but that law was repealed by lawmakers in 1990.

A year later, the Legislature passed a bill mandating that school districts start their academic year no earlier than the week of Aug. 21, later than most districts used at the time. It was intended to stop schools from discriminating against migrants, Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, a sponsor, said at the time.

According to the study, some Texas school districts start classes as early as the first week of August. Austin schools started Aug. 17, 10 days earlier than they did in 1990, according to the study.

Even with the earlier start dates, many school districts are ending classes later in the spring than they used to, officials with the comptroller's office said. Strayhorn said the reason is an increased number of holidays and professional days for teachers, some that "are not necessary."

"The Legislature should compress the school year and start school later," Strayhorn said. "A school year that begins after Labor Day is feasible."

Strayhorn said she's begun forming a task force made up of teachers, principals, school administrators, parents, business interests and others with a stake in the issue.

"We're going to lay out a plan. I think we'll wrap it up by early December," she said.

Also up for discussion: more balanced semesters that allow for finals before the Christmas holiday, instead of after, she said.

But the issue is far from decided, as two participants in her press conference proved. Representatives of the Texas Federation of Teachers and the Texas State Teachers Association, two key educator groups, said that though they supported the task force, they took no position on a later school start date or a uniform start date.

A group called Texans for a Traditional School Year praised the report.

In releasing the study and forming the task force, Strayhorn said her only goal is "to drive more of every education dollar directly into the classrooms where it belongs: with the students and teachers."

"Our schools are facing tremendous budget challenges, and fiscal discipline is more important now than ever before," she said.

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