Committee hears bill to lengthen school year

AUGUSTA – The Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee this week heard from supporters and opponents of a bill to expand the length of the school year by 10 days and another mandating that classes begin after Labor Day.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan, sponsor of the bill to extend the school year, told the committee Tuesday that it was needed to improve student performance. He said Maine faces challenges from other states and countries and that the current 180-day school year was one of the shortest in the U.S. Mills acknowledged that the $50 million price tag might scare off support.

“I think we will benefit from adding a few more days to the school year,” Mills said. “If we can find some extra money, I can’t find any better way to use it than for our schoolchildren.”

Rep. Linda M. Valentino, D-Saco, sponsor of the bill mandating that classes begin after Labor Day, said the measure was needed to ensure that the lodging and tourism industry had enough young workers available for the last holiday weekend of summer. She said many communities begin school the last week of August, a situation that forces high school students to quit their summer jobs at a time when they are needed most.

“This bill ensures that the tourism industry would get the maximum days in summer,” Valentino told the committee. “I think this is a very small way to give a week back to tourism.”

Pam Cahill, representing the Maine Innkeepers Association, reminded the committee that Vacationland had a short season and that every day of summer was important to the bottom line. She said there was very little time in summer to maximize business and student earning.

“We’re just looking for a little help here,” the former legislator told the committee. “We’re looking to keep our tourism business alive for another week in the summer.”

While the Mills bill received the backing of some attending the meeting, all but one of the 30 sixth-grade pupils from St. Mary’s School in Augusta who attended the public hearing thought the proposal was a bad idea.

Standing at the podium in her school uniform, Mackenzie Green of Augusta told the panel that summer was a time for kids to spend with their families and extending the school year would not only take away from that but also cost more money.

Mark Hachey of Winthrop said the move would hurt the economy.

“Tourism is a large part of the Maine economy. That’s 10 less days of people going to Old Orchard Beach and Acadia,” the sixth-grader told the committee.

Supporter Ken Farber, a founder of the Portland parent group Building Bridges, said when in-service days are deducted, the actual length of the school year is 175 days. He said Maine needed to keep pace with what other states are doing in order to be competitive. He said he worried about his children having a level playing field when it came to applying to college.

“We are lagging behind our sister New England states,” he said. “We are well below what is the normal school year in the country.”

Former state Board of Education member Jack McKee of Kingfield said he graduated in 1942, and the school calendar of his era was virtually the same today. He said national studies have long determined that American children were not spending enough time in the classroom and it was time to change.

“We’re still bumbling along with the same old calendar that was already 100 years old when I went there,” McKee said.

Dick Derost, executive director of the Maine Principals Association, said he “applauded” the concept of adding more school days. He added, however, that “considering the financial constraints, we believe an increase in the school year is not [relevant] at this time.”

Derost also spoke in opposition to the plan to require schools to begin classes after Labor Day. He said the school calendar was a matter of local control and was based on the local needs of individual school districts. He said schools have a number of reasons for opening in August, the primary one being that students were better equipped to handle school work at the beginning of the year than when June rolls around and their thoughts turn to summer.