Tourism proposal gets cool receptionArizona's hotel operators want families to take an end-of-summer vacation and, hopefully, fill their empty rooms.
Kristen Jarnigan, spokeswoman for the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association, said her industry is weighing legislation that would require public
schools to start their academic year at the same time. The law would forbid schools from starting before Labor Day.
"It extends the holiday season," she said. "You get in that Labor Day weekend where everyone does that one last hurrah getaway that pumps millions of dollars of tax revenues into the budget in tourism tax dollars."
It also would fill empty rooms and the cash registers of resorts, hotels and motels.
But the idea is getting a decidedly icy reception on various fronts.
Lucy Messing, president of the Tucson Education Association, said Arizona schools used to start after Labor Day. But she said that was "based on the fields and people returning from vacation."
"But we're about education," she said. "We certainly should not be run by the hotel lobby."
Messing said the current calendar, put together by a committee of
school administrators, educators and parents, seems to best suit the needs of those involved.
That's also the assessment of Filbert Barrera. He is the president of the Parent Teacher Organization for the Marshall
Elementary School in Tucson.
"Changing the school year would have to be based on an education benefit, rather than spending money and planning on trips," he said, adding he opposes pushing change to accommodate tourism.
Tom Horne, the state school superintendent, also said the idea makes no sense.
Jarnigan, however, said there are lots of good reasons to consider adjusting the school year.
She said there is evidence that August, when most schools start up now, is at least marginally hotter than June. She cited figures showing the average high in August at 102.4 degrees, versus just 102 degrees for June.
Cooler temperatures, even by a fraction of a degree, means lower utility costs, she said.
But Jarnigan said the proposal doesn't necessarily mean extending the school year into the entire month of June. She said districts could get in the required 180 days of education by omitting week-long breaks many now have in the fall.
One complicating factor is some schools run on a year-round calendar, based at least in part on the educational theory that students lose too much ground when they've got too much time between classes.
"They would also need to be included in the discussion," Jarnigan said, before the Legislature mandates a universal start date.
But Messing said much more is involved.
She said one reason for the current calendar is they run parallel to the academic year at state universities. Messing said that makes it easier for teachers who also are taking courses to coordinate their schedules.
Horne said the push by Jarnigan's group is based on the presumption that Arizonans vacation within the state and would spend their cash at Arizona hotels, something he said should not be taken for granted.
Even if that were the case, he said, there are all sorts of problems with what is being proposed. And he said his experience comes not from his current job but his 24 years as a member of the school board of the Paradise Valley Unified School District.
He pointed out, as did Messing, that the calendars in most districts generally are the product of a committee, with the final result generally ratified by the school board. And, in each district, Horne explained, the views, needs and concerns of all involved become the basis for when the school year starts and ends.
Having a uniform, state-mandated start date, he said, overrules any local control. What it also would do, Horne said, is provoke anger.
"You learn from bitter experience not to mess with the calendar committee," he said.
"One year we changed it," Horne recalled of his board. "And we got so much hostility for that, that we learned never to change that again.
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