Bills to allow earlier school year in jeopardy

By: BY OLYMPIA MEOLA AND JEFF E. SCHAPIRO Media General News Service | Lynchburg News and Advance
Published: February 02, 2010

For another year, it looks like high school students might punch a clock instead of boarding a school bus before Labor Day.

The Virginia Senate, largely on the urging of a Republican whose district includes the giant Busch Garden theme park, all but killed three bills that would allow local schools to open before Labor Day.

Senate GOP Floor Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James County, despite objections from fellow Republicans, said the measures threaten job-creation efforts by the McDonnell administration.

Two other school-opening bills are pending in the Senate, and even if they escape, they are likely to be defeated in the House of Delegates.

The three bills debated yesterday — they were kicked back to a hostile committee — were carried by Republicans, putting the sponsors at odds with the state's first GOP governor in nearly a decade.

"I'm allowed to exercise a degree of independence," said Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier.

Meanwhile yesterday, the House Education Committee advanced to the floor an related, but less-stringent measure stating that in years when Labor Day falls on Sept. 5 or later, a school division may open no earlier than one week before the holiday.

Currently, state law requires schools to open after Labor Day unless the district requests a waiver from the Board of Education, which can approve it for "good cause." That includes a district that has been closed an average of eight days a year during five of the last 10 years because of severe weather, power failures or other emergencies.

According to lawmakers, more than 70 school districts in the state receive waivers.

Some school districts would like to start earlier to have more time for instruction, but the state's tourism destinations rely on high school employees and the extra week or so of vacationing families.

Del. Mark L. Cole, R-Spotsylvania, said the bill was about business and tax revenue, and pointed to industry representatives who say business will take a hit.

The bill's sponsor, Del. Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach, shot back, saying "I thought this was the education committee and we were concerned about education here and not commerce and trade."

Olympia Meola and Jeff E. Schapiro write for The Richmond Times-Dispatch.