
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130514
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

YEAR-LONG SCHOOL IS WORTH STUDYING

REACTING to a mail survey of public opinion, the Montgomery County School Board has dropped the idea of keeping schools open year-round. OK for now. But chances are that sometime in the future, the idea will be back.

Answers to the survey were overwhelmingly opposed. Seventy-two percent of respondents were against year-round schools if they'd have to pay more taxes to support them. No surprise, given widespread anti-tax sentiment. Still, there may be cause to look at the poll results more carefully.

For one thing, the survey was not likely to draw the broadest and most representative range of opinion.

Questionnaires were mailed to 1,500 people randomly chosen from the county's personal-property tax rolls. The response was very good - 598 replies, or 40 percent - but such a technique tends to draw answers from those who feel strongest about an issue. And where taxes are even peripherally involved, you'll hear from those who feel that enough's enough. Few are comparably passionate about the need to pay more.

An added difficulty is that where schools are involved, many taxpayers believe they've made a hefty investment already in public education - and that it's past time for results to show.

That's reasonable. But the expectation may bring the argument back to its starting point. If all the dollars spent on schools haven't brought a proportionate return yet, among the possible reasons is that the dollars aren't used efficiently.

In most jurisdictions, these expensive facilities are closed more days out of the year than they're open. Weekends, holidays and summer vacations leave buildings closed and - in the case of long breaks - many minds unoccupied and unchallenged. Americans pride themselves in the faith they put in education. But it's only a part-time activity for most students and teachers.

Schools needn't operate 12 months a year; one alternative is 44 weeks rather than the prevailing 36. Nor must the longer calendar be mandatory. Buena Vista has run its schools since 1973 on a year-round but voluntary basis. The results - as measured in student participation and parental acceptance, in test scores and in dropout rates - have been impressive. Enough so that more populous jurisdictions, such as the city of Roanoke and Chesterfield County, also have been studying the year-round alternative.

No one can say that schools can be kept open more days for the same money. But public education will continue to make demands on taxpayers as long as they want young people equipped to excel in an increasingly complex and competitive world. If running the schools longer means running them better and more efficiently, it's an approach that systems of all sizes ought to consider.

by CNB