In the vast ocean of unfunded, nonsensical state mandates that wash over Virginia localities, one that forbids public schools from opening before Labor Day may seem like small potatoes.
But the message the law sends — that state legislators, not local school boards know best how to devise a school calendar — is one that has grated on local governments from the day it was passed in 1988.
Monday, Gov. Bob McDonnell came out in favor of scrapping the law and returning power over the local school calendar to the local school board.
Dubbed the “Kings Dominion Relief Act” when it was enacted, the post-Labor Day opening has been strongly backed by the state’s tourism industry. They’ve tried to portray it as a family-values matter, giving Mom, Dad and the kids a little extra time for one last summer vacation. But everyone knew from the start it was about cheap, teenaged labor and the dollars that would flow into the coffers of the tourism industry.
Early on, it was all but impossible for local divisions to get a state waiver to open before Labor Day, even when hit hard by winter-weather closings.
It was a clash of education and business interests, with deep lobbying pockets, and the winner was always business.
Not even former state Sen. Elliot Schewel, of Lynchburg, the powerful chairman of the Senate education committee, could prevail in the fight to repeal the law.
Flash forward 20 years. Today, according to state officials, the Virginia Department of Education has granted 77 of 132 school divisions waivers to open before Labor Day. Last year, McDonnell even signed into law a bill that created a permanent exception to public schools in the city of Roanoke.
This year, the governor said, the time has come to repeal the law entirely.
We agree whole heartedly.
It’s not a matter of being against the all-important tourism industry. It is about putting the interests and needs of Virginia’s schoolchildren first on the public agenda.
Study after study has shown American children falling behind educationally, as other countries are ramping up their economic challenges to the United States. The only way for America to remain the pre-eminent economic power in the world is to do everything necessary to increase the education prowess of our children.
It’s just one, small step. We know that. But it’s one that sends an outsized message about the importance of public education.
Now, if we could only pry open the state’s purse for more dollars for the classroom itself.
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