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Schools

Lawmakers try - again - to set school start date

By RON MATUS
Published January 25, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - Florida's graduation rates are the pits. The achievement gap is a mile wide. But nothing riles parents like the perception that summer break is shrinking.

The debate over when to start school, a hot issue in the Legislature last year, flared again Wednesday before the Senate Pre-K-12 committee and promised to linger.

"We're not done," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association.

At issue is a bill that would carve a loophole from last year's legislation, which bars school boards from starting school more than 14 days before Labor Day.

The new bill, sponsored by Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, would allow school boards to adopt earlier start dates for high schools, which offer Advanced Placement classes and dual enrollment programs with colleges. It would not affect elementary or middle schools.

Later start times "will be detrimental to student scores," said Caitlin Carroll, 17, an AP student at Stanton College Preparatory School in Jacksonville.

To appease opponents, an amendment passed Wednesday would require that school boards considering an earlier start date first hold three public hearings; survey parents of all students; and pass any change with a two-thirds majority.

It wasn't enough. After a debate that rehashed last year's arguments, the bill went down, 3-4.

"Let's give the law a chance," urged Sherry Sturner, a South Florida mom who rallied thousands of parents last year as head of Save Our Summers Florida.

Since the late 1990s, school has started earlier and earlier. This year, 13 of 67 Florida districts began school in the first week of August; 40 began in the second.

Critics say the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test is the driving force, and the result is whipsawed vacation plans and teens losing summer jobs.

"This is an issue about families," said Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Delray Beach.

Supporters, meanwhile, point out that school calendars also are shaped by a desire to end the fall semester before Christmas and that the length of the school year is still at or near 180 days. If the calendar is out of whack with local priorities, they say, then local officials should fix it.

But the issue isn't dead. A motion by Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami - one of four senators who voted against the bill - assures it will be on the agenda at the next meeting.

Ron Matus can be reached at 727 893-8873 or matus@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 25, 2007, 05:41:45]