School's Out for (an extra week of) Summer! (maybe)

A proposal to extend summer break by one week has survived tentative approval in the legislature. The bill also proposes a $2,000 raise for Texas teachers.

As of now school can not legally begin before August 21st, and the new bill proposes a start on the fourth Monday of August. We still remember the days when school started after Labor Day (we think). At least the kids will now get a three-day weekend after a week of school, and that's always cool.

The late start would apparently save the state millions of dollars in operational costs. And continue to help lawmakers avoid the real work of figuring out how to fix school finance by applying a quick-fix band-aid.

[from NBC5 site]

Republican Sen. Robert Duncan of Lubbock added the measure to a sweeping education reform bill being considered this week by a key Senate committee. Lawmakers are in the last half of a 30-day special session to address school funding.

While current law allows some school districts to apply for waivers to start earlier, Duncan's proposal would not allow exceptions to the uniform start date. This year, 369 Texas school districts received permission to start school earlier, Aug. 7 being the earliest.

The Austin school district, for example, got permission to start on Aug. 15 for the upcoming school year. Austin school officials said that the earlier start date allows extra time to prepare for the high-stakes state assessment test.

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