A truly absurd bill is gaining at least some traction in the Ohio state House of Representatives. HB191 proposes that school districts should be prohibited from starting the school before Labor Day in an effort to promote tourism in the state.
If that was not absurd enough, the same bill is proposing that the state measure the school year not by days, but by hours. In this case, the legislature wants a minimum 1,001 hours of annual instruction. The current state law requires schools to be open a minimum of 182 days.
More after the jump...
Some local school board leaders are saying the conversion to hours will cut weeks off the school year:
Schare said that would allow Worthington schools to reduce the number of days to 151 from the current 178.
“You are essentially allowing us to shave five full weeks off the school year,” Schare said.
Of course, the Republican co-sponsor of the bill says that's hogwash:
State Rep. Bill Hayes, R-Harrison Township, a co-sponsor of House Bill 191, said he was surprised by the testimony. Under current Ohio law, schools must be open for 182 days.
But that number, Hayes said, includes days when classes aren’t in session, including snow days, parent-teacher conferences and teacher in-service programming.
“At best in many districts, they’re going about 170,” Hayes said. “So this bill, I think, in many districts is going to create kids going to school longer.”
I don't see how going from 170 school days to 151 is progress, but at Ohio political blog Plunderbund, a significant non-voting bloc is all for it: kids.
Me: Therefore, the new law could lower your number of school days from 179 to 156. 23 fewer days is over four weeks of school cut from your year.
Him: WHAAAT? Are you serious? So Dad, you’re saying this would mean I would get four more weeks without school? DO IT! C’mon, Dad, I don’t get why you don’t like this.
The bill, of course, fails to address what families will do in terms of paying for all the extra child care they will need. It also assumes that people would stay in state for their vacations (if you can afford it, you're not staying here...I don't care how nice the roller coasters in Cedar Point are).
Perhaps the biggest betrayal is the horrific lack of attention to the academic fallout from such drastic legislation. While other countries work on ways to make education more effective and efficient, we toil in not only preserving archaic traditions, but extending them. All in the quest for profit.