Kentucky Votes Forum

Introduced in the House on January 2, 2007

Click here to view bill details.

This is a terrible plan. Our boards of education are tasked with developing plans to do what is best to educate our children. They make these decisions based on the needs in their own districts. In the district where my children attend we have an alternative calendar. They have determined that this schedule works best with their educational priorities and they can point to numerous metrics that suggest this calendar has improved teaching and learning in our district and reduced discipline problems and teacher burnout. It might not be the solution for every district and under the current system, each school board can decide what is best for their own students. This proposed legislation originates with 2 groups: the Kentucky tourism lobbyists and a relatively small parent group from Barren County that has recruited members around the state. Should Boards of Education be required to comply with a standard date that is preferred by the tourism community in our state? Which will have the most impact on the future of our commonwealth, a well-educated population or extending family travel through August each summer? How do we continue to improve student achievement? Does this bill provide any educational benefits to our children? I hope the education committee will consult extensively with educators and keep education at the forefront while they consider this bill.

It is my hope this Bill is not called for discussion and a vote. All the Commonwealth's educational associations are against this Bill. I hope the Education Committee Chairman does not waste his committee's time with this Bill which has no chance of passing.

I respect your position of not being in favor of HB 95, however, we know that the KEA lobbying group is very strong. As a group of concerned citizens, we hate to see the summer eroding away each year with earlier and earlier school start dates. I am of the "Old School," we started school after Labor Day and got out at Memorial Day. It worked for the Baby Boomers. So, how is it that kids today, with all the technological advances, are having problems learning and testing? The problem is that school administrators in Kentucky just don't want to change. All that Save Kentucky Summers is asking for is a two to three week "time shift." This group would still allow the school systems all the flexibility to make the change in calendar happen. "But it can't be done!" is usually the reply heard from school administrators. That is the part that really troubles me because many other states have already figured out how to change their school calendars with no adverse effect on their children's testing. I find it ironic that the top ten testing states in the nation according to research, start school after Labor Day. What good does it do for children to get out of school in early May? The summer job market hasn't opened up and the swimming pools don't open until after Memorial Day? The summer market really needs workers in August when the northern states are taking their vacations (right before their schools start in September). Families need time at the end of summer (after Little League and band camp) to take their vacations. Given the chance, most of them will spend their vacation doing something in Kentucky. Losing the best three weeks of August as vacation time, probably has a negative economic impact of about $70 million dollars on the state of Kentucky (based on what other states have lost out on). We know that the school calendar can be shifted without any negative effect on our children's education and learning experience. The benefit to families and the state of Kentucky will be very positive both in quality of family time and economic impact. Please take the time to look below the "surface" of this issue and see that it is not the bad idea that educators are making it out to be. If they cannot meet the capability of transitioning a time shift in the school calendar, maybe they are not as educationally sound as we are led to believe.

I'm in favor of local control. In the old days, America was an educational super power. Our educational system was second-to-none. We lead the world. Now, our educational system is second-to-many. Why is that? I'm told that public education, over the years, hasn't really changed that much -- that it hasn't evolved along with the world. We still teach with the goal of producing blue collar workers -- not that there's anything wrong with blue collar work itself. But over time, those blue collar jobs are going overseas and/or over the border, in the new global economy, and that trend will not reverse. As such, we need to provide our children with new training; an education based on critical thinking, problem solving, and technology. So I think we should give local school districts as much flexibility as possible. The days of going home to work on the farm (the original intent of summer vacation) are long past us. If a district wants to try a new approach, and part of that includes going to school on different days, so be it. Leaving open as many options as possible will inspire competition. Competition finds better methods of attaining a goal, and the proof will be in test scores. Let educators teach, and let local school boards decide what's best for their community.

I am very much in favor of school not starting until later. Some comments have been made "let them educate" the problem is they don't, Our schools no longer allow our children to have books to bring home to be able to study, they are not allowed or given opportunities for trips in which they learn things and see significant sites for our state or our country, Children learn best with first hand experience. The summer is the best time for parents to take their children to see many of these sites. School taxes continue to rise , and our children are recieving much less. If our children were truly getting what we were paying for it may be different. so Family is what our children not a Board of Education that only wants our children in school to get the money, but they sure do not want to make it a learning experience. If the board was more concerned about the children and families and not politics then things would be much different.

What flabbergasts me about this issue is the fact that no one seems to think about WHY so many districts start school earlier than they used to. To me, it is two things - winter weather and the testing window. Rural districts where winter weather regularly closes school have had to start going back earlier in August because if they don't, their instructional days before the statewide testing window opens are SIGNIFICANTLY fewer than more urban districts where the buses run no matter what's on the ground. In other words, districts in these areas that are struggling to raise their scores are dealt another blow by not having the same amount of instructional time as districts that they will be compared to by the state. Most districts that go back to school in early August are only trying to level the playing field when it comes to accountability. In addition, these rural districts have to make up all the days that they miss during the winter. They wind up still being in session well after much of rest of the state is on vacation because they are making up those days. Even though the school calendar SAYS that the year will end in mid-May, the reality often is that school is going on well into June if the weather has been severe in the slightest. These districts have to have a buffer against Mother Nature's wrath, and going back earlier seems to help solve this problem. I did notice that an amendment to this bill includes pushing the testing window back until May. THAT is something with which I can whole-heartedly agree regardless of when the school year starts. We are forced to build up our entire school year as a prelude to assessment, and once the exams are collected, most students feel that they are finished for the year. Almost everything that teachers attempt to do after the testing window closes gets lost somewhere between student inattention and thoughts of summer break. Pushing testing back until May truly does makes it the culminating event of the year. Maybe I'm wrong, but I really don't think that I am. Individual districts should be allowed to determine their own calendars according to what works best for THEIR students and staff. There are enough "one size fits all" mandates that we have to follow in education that don't make sense. There is no reason to add another.

If the individual districts looked at what was best for their students, here in Warren county it is obvious in more areas than not the board of education and the individual schools are looking strictly at their convenience not in any way what is best for our students.

If the local school boards are that bad, then perhaps someone else should take their place.

AMEN TO YOUR STATEMENTS, SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT START UNTIL AFTER LABOR DAY AND GET OUT JUNE 1ST. IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR US OLDTIMERS, I'M SURE IT IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR OUR KIDS TODAY.

YOUR STATEMENT THAT THIS DOES NOT PROVIDE EDUCATION TIME, WRONG, IT PROVIDES FAMILY TIME, TODAY WITH THIS FAST LIFE WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FAMILY TIME. OUR STATE RANKS AT THE LOWER END OF THE SCALE IN EDUCATION, THE TOP 10 DON'T START SCHOOL UNTIL AFTER LABOR DAY! lOOKS LIKE WE COULD LEARN FROM THEM AND STOP BEING HILLBILLIES? ALL THESE GOLD - GREEN DAYS THAT TEACHERS GET SHOULD BE TURNED INTO TEACHING DAYS. GET A REAL JOB, WE DON'T GET DAYS OFF TO NOT DO OUR REAL JOB.

Push the CATS test back to May and we won't have to start earlier. CATS test should be at the end of the year. As soon as the CATS test are over, our school starts collecting text books, closing down lockers, emptying desks and we still have three weeks of school left. It is riduculous that we have to give up our summers, because Caveman is right, if your child participates in any kind of summer sport you have little or no time for a vacation. Last year it was so incredibly hot in August, we had children throwing up and passing out on the school buses. I am truly an advocate for children academically, but please, lets use the time we have for teaching and less for standardized testing. Stop testing on things like music, art and pratical living! Children should enjoy the arts not be grilled and tested. We can't "do" art, because we are too busy "learning" about it. Students need to be proficient in reading(the core of it all), writing, science and be able to balance a check book. I know it seems remedial, but it has worked before. Based on our Kenucky ranking numbers, what we are doing isn't working. Our nation is in a educational crisis and the government better figure it out before it is too late.