Local control

Wisconsin law is often confusing.

Most laws are written by lawyers and are interpreted by other lawyers and questions over the meaning of the laws go before judges — who are themselves lawyers.

All that being said, the state law is pretty clear on establishing a uniform school start date.

Wisconsin State Statues 118.045 states: “(1) Except as provided in subs. (2) and (3), beginning in the year 2000, no public school may commence the school term until September 1.”

Section 2 goes on to allow athletic practices and contests before September 1, holding in-service days, and holding year-round schools (like the Rural Virtual Academy). Section 3 gives the Department of Public Instruction the authority to allow a school to start before September 1 if the local board asks for permission and provides a justifiable reason. It is up to the DPI to set the rules for what is considered a good enough reason.

Now, the DPI is looking at a change that would put the bar somewhere below ground level for schools wanting to start the school year effectively circumventing the language and intent of the state law.

I think this is a bad idea. In about 99.9% of the time, I am a believer in and advocate for local control. Local elected officials answerable to local voters should almost always be the ones setting rules. The major exception to this is when those decisions impact people outside the local area.

Prior to 2000, Wisconsin was a mish-mash of school start dates, with a perpetual creeping closer and closer to the beginning of August while perpetuating the myth that kids don’t learn after Memorial Day.

With child labor laws restricting the number of hours students can work during the school year, having earlier start dates significantly impacts the state’s tourism and recreation industries. School start and end dates affect access to public facilities such as municipal swimming pools or recreation programs.

Beyond all this, August has historically been one of the nicer months of year in Wisconsin when it comes to weather patterns. The days are reliably hot and dry with the evenings cooling off. It is the prime time for summer activities, as opposed to early summer where the weather wildly fluctuates.

Years ago my family took a camping trip over Memorial Day weekend and had everything from snow flurries to a downpour and then to sweltering heat when the sun came out.

August is the prime month for vacationing inWisconsin and with vacationers comes significant tourism revenue. Tourism is the lifeblood of northern Wisconsin. The lack of winter tourism this year had a tremendous negative impact on businesses and communities especially in the northern third of state. Taking away summer tourism would put the proverbial nail in the coffin for many tourism- dependent businesses.

The weather also plays another role, in that the vast majority of school buildings are not designed to handle high temperatures. The trend has been to having hotter daytime highs in August, which would make being in stuffy classrooms unbearable for students and teachers.

One of the major arguments in favor of earlier start dates is that “all the kids are already back with sports and band.” To this I would point out that “all” is an exaggeration with a good year seeing about one-third of students taking part in sports or activities. Proponents of earlier school start dates may also want to look at how this could impact the changes that have occurred in coaching and camps over the past two decades and what disruption a wholesale change will bring.

Beyond all this is a question of the appropriateness of pushing for a back-door change through a DPI loophole designed for extraordinary circumstances. If the people truly want a change to give local boards more control, then there should be a groundswell of people willing to contact their state legislators to get the law changed.

If educational success was truly the main reason for justifying an earlier start date, then we as a state should pull the band-aid off and go to year round schooling with longer breaks between terms.

Given the cost of child care in the summer, this could be a very popular option.

Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News.