'Back to School' Comes Earlier

By Ann Marie Chaker, Wall Street Journal

For more families with kids in school, August is the new September.

In a shift that is confounding summer vacation plans and sparking outcries from both parents and the tourism industry, school districts are increasingly pushing the academic year into the lazy days of August -- with some districts starting classes as early as next Monday.

In certain parts of the country, such as the South and parts of the Midwest, many public schools have been starting before Labor Day for some time. But even in those areas, many are seeing the start date increasingly moved up.

This year, the two biggest school districts in Florida are starting school at record-early dates. Most of the schools in both Broward County and Miami-Dade County public school districts -- together, about 600 schools -- are starting next week, Aug. 8.

In Texas, where districts must get permission from the state to start classes before the week on which Aug. 21 falls, over 700 districts have received waivers for school to start in early to mid-August this year. That's compared with over 100 districts that received permission last year.

And classes in South Carolina have been progressively starting earlier over the past decade. This year, the vast majority of the state's 85 districts are starting by Aug. 15. That is compared with only two districts that started by then 10 years earlier.

In all, about three-fourths of the nation's public schools now start before Sept. 1. That's up from about 50% that started that early in the late 1980s, according to a survey by Market Data Retrieval, an education research firm.

The trend is sparking a backlash, as parents complain that August start dates conflict with such things as family reunions and camp schedules and rob children of the chance to enjoy the last lazy days of summer. Parent groups with names like "Georgians Need Summers," along with tourism interests who say the trend cuts into end-of-summer travel business, have been lobbying for legislation limiting how early the school year can start. In Minnesota, a bill to require schools to start after Labor Day was signed into law last month and will take effect next school year.

Educators say part of what is driving the earlier dates is the growing pressure that comes with state standardized tests. This year in South Carolina, for instance, the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test will be administered in May to grades three through eight; by starting in mid-August, students and teachers gain three weeks of study that they wouldn't get by starting after Labor Day.

The stakes are high: Under President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, schools could face a range of possible sanctions, including school restructuring and faculty job loss, if students don't meet test thresholds. "Performance on these tests literally have people losing jobs, and teachers are using these scores when they decide to hold kids back," says Jim Foster, spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Education in Columbia, S.C.

While state-mandated instructional days have generally stayed stable at around 180 days, school officials note that earlier starts also shift the academic calendar so that the fall semester ends at winter break. Thus students are able to take midterm exams before the holidays while the material is still fresh, and don't have to cram for exams that would otherwise be given the week they get back.

Nevertheless, parents are irked. Alix Wolf, a mother of four children who attend public schools in Broward County, Fla., says the fact that school now starts Monday has made it impossible to take her children to a mid-August family reunion, as well as a wedding this weekend. On top of that, she has pulled her kids out a week early from day camp. "When I paid for it, I didn't realize they'd come up against each other so closely," she says.

Ms. Wolf is planning to join other parents in forming a group that would petition legislators to pass a law that would require a later start date. Her group would join a number of other efforts that have been drawing attention to the issue of early school starts, including Georgians Need Summers, Save South Carolina Summers, and a North Carolina parent group called Save Our Summers. The latter was instrumental in getting a law passed in 2004 that says North Carolina schools generally can't start any earlier than Aug. 25.

One group, Texans for a Traditional School Year, says it has received funding from a powerful ally: the tourism industry. So far this year the group has received nearly $25,000, much of it from businesses ranging from hotels and restaurants to the "T-shirt people," says Tina Bruno, a parent of three in San Antonio and founder of the group, which supported passage of the 2001 law that required districts to ask state permission to start early.

A 2004 study by Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn says that while the overall number of school days has remained stable over the past 50 years, the academic year has gradually stretched out with such things as more and longer holiday breaks and extra teacher-training days. The study says the economic effects of shorter summer breaks can be seen in reduced tourist activity and higher energy bills for air conditioning the school buildings. A summer break that is shortened by two weeks costs tourism businesses in the state an estimated $392 million, the study calculated.

In South Carolina, one beach-house and condominium-rental agency says that its August business from South Carolina tourists is half what it is in July. "Whatever we're doing in August, we'd probably double that if schools in South Carolina had a uniform start date" in September, says Rod Swaim, a partner in Dunes Realty Inc., Garden City Beach, S.C.

In Michigan, Dan Musser, president of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, testified before a state legislative hearing that over the past 15 years "we have seen a decrease of a little over 25% in revenues from the time period of Aug. 18 through Aug. 31."

Among other state laws spurred by tourism-industry and parent lobbying: Last year, North Carolina passed a bill that requires public schools to open no sooner than Aug. 25 and close no later than June 10, with few exceptions. In Michigan, legislation requiring school to start after Labor Day is pending in the state Senate. And these states are joining a handful of others, such as Virginia and Wisconsin, which mandate September start dates.

Some school officials say decisions that affect education shouldn't stem from business interests. Minnesota state Rep. Mark Buesgens, chairman of the House educational-policy committee who had opposed the Minnesota law, points out that schools could have a host of reasons for wanting flexibility in their schedules.

BACKLASHSome states have enacted laws to curb early school starts, in response to parent and tourism-industry concerns:

• North Carolina: 2004 law says schools generally can't start earlier than Aug. 25.
• Minnesota: Starting next year, schools can't start before Labor Day.
• Virginia: Law requires classes to start after Labor Day.
• Wisconsin: Law requires school to start after Sept. 1.