Kansas City Democrat criticizes school start bill, says it is more about tourism than education

(From Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City)

Although we were anticipating taking up HB 581 relating to the expansion of Charter Schools, it was put on the informal calendar, and we took up school start dates instead.

With just four votes to spare, the House of Representatives on March 6, voted 86-64 to advance legislation to the Senate that would prohibit local public school districts from starting their school years in the first half of August. A minimum of 82 votes is constitutionally required to pass a bill through the House.

Under House Bill 161, districts could set the first day of school no earlier than 14 days before the first Monday in September, which depending how the calendar falls in given year could be as early as Aug. 18 or as late as Aug. 24.

As a default, existing law says the school year can’t begin any earlier than 10 days before the first day of September, or Aug. 22 through Aug. 28. However, local school boards are free to set the start of the school year earlier, so long as they vote to do so in open session, an option many districts take.

Unfortunately, the debate on the floor sounded more like schools vs tourism with supporters of HB 161 taking the position that school districts were cutting the summer tourism season short by preventing families from taking August vacations and depriving many tourism-based businesses of teenage workers. 

And opponents arguing for the educational interests of students taking precedence over the economic interests of one industry. I believe each local school board is better positioned to weigh all factors and determine what best works for their particular community and joined my Democrat colleagues, along with about two dozen Republicans, who voted against the bill.