For years, state legislators have debated whether to keep a law that requires public schools in Virginia to open after Labor Day. A recent study makes a suggestion on how to end the debate.
Supporters of the law say that Virginia’s thriving tourism industry would be hurt if schools were to open before Labor Day. Critics say students need as much time as possible to prepare for standardized tests.
The debate was tackled in the recent State of the Commonwealth report from Old Dominion University.
Robert McNab is the report’s lead author:
“Looking at student scores and student performance and we found no impact. And then we calculated the impact on tourism and it was extraordinarily small; it was about 40 to 50 million dollars at the high end of the range in a multi-billion dollar tourism industry.”
Because of those findings, McNab and his colleagues believe the decision should be left to individual school districts.
“There may be local districts that decide its best because they’re tourism dependent – for example, Virginia Beach – to open after Labor Day. And there are other districts that decide, ‘Nope, we are going to open up in August because that’s best for our students.’”
Legislation to remove the Labor Day requirement has been filed for the upcoming General Assembly session.
