Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 21, 1993 TAG: 9302210174
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
SO FAR, TOURISM WINNING SCHOOL CALENDAR BILL FAILS AGAIN
SINCE THE 1986 passage of a law requiring Virginia's public schools to open after Labor Day, some educators have fought a losing battle to regain control of their calendars.Wayne Tripp says he is tired of the rhetoric, of all the talk of educational reform and extending the school year, followed by failed legislative attempts to alter the post-Labor Day school-opening law.
"I'm tired of being a duck in a shooting gallery," said Tripp, superintendent of Salem schools. "They criticize education left and right, then they tie our hands."
Twice, the Salem school system fought the post-Labor-Day opening - once through a bill that would have amended the city charter to allow school openings on the first weekday after Sept. 1, and the second time through a waiver request to the Virginia Board of Education.
Both efforts fell flat.
"There's a certain element of hypocrisy," Tripp said. "Here we talk about reform in education, children going to school 200 to 240 days. Yet if it interferes with the profit margin, we can't get out from under it."
The General Assembly passed a law in 1986 - permanently effective in 1988 - forbidding schools from opening before Labor Day. School organizations had opposed it, but Virginia's powerful travel, tourism and theme-park industry lobbied hard and successfully.
And the industry continues to lobby - hard and successfully - against legislative efforts to repeal or modify the statute. At least nine bills attempting to do so have failed, most recently those sponsored by Sen. Malfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and Sen. H. Russell Potts, R-Winchester, this General Assembly session.
The debate has left some believing that public education has taken a back seat to theme parks.
"It's politics and it's money," Tripp says. "It's driven by very little else. It doesn't have anything to do with children's education."
Money has fared prominently in arguments defending the post-Labor-Day opening. Tourism is an important part of basic revenue, supporters say.
Supporters also hinge their arguments on the industry's need for high school students to continue working through the last big weekend of the tourism season and on farmers' needing children at home to work.
And yes, the post-Labor Day law does have some roots in politics.
The statute was the pet project of Del. Alson Smith, D-Winchester, a major Democratic fund-raiser who fought for the law's passage for years.
A bill calling for a repeal of the post-Labor-Day opening, sponsored by Smith's fellow Winchester legislator - Potts - was swiftly defeated in the House Education Committee this session.
Potts' bill would have given school boards the option of setting their own calendars by removing the mandate. The bill - as well as Trumbo's - was supported by the Virginia School Board Association and several other state education associations.
"We're in favor of anything that would loosen up that law," said David Blount, government-relations officer for the school boards' group. "We think the school calendars are the prerogative of local school boards. They should determine what best suits their needs."
When Trumbo's bill calling for a total repeal of the post-Labor-Day statute was killed last year, he lowered his sights a bit for a follow-up attempt.
He introduced a bill this General Assembly session that - with one word change - would have given school systems more latitude in obtaining waivers from the Labor Day requirement.
The statute specifies that the state Board of Education "may" grant waivers to school systems provided they show good cause for seeking one, such as a large number of missed days due to weather. Trumbo sought to change "may" to "shall," giving a little more teeth to the waiver option.
"A school system could meet the guidelines for good cause but not get a waiver," Trumbo said Tuesday. "I was just saying that once good cause is shown, the board doesn't have any alternative but to grant a waiver."
Trumbo's bill made it out of committee, passed the Senate floor but was killed by a House of Delegates committee.
Nineteen Virginia school systems, all in the southwestern part of the state, have been granted waivers for weather reasons. But obtaining a waiver for reasons other than weather can be difficult.
Salem, Roanoke and Roanoke County sought waivers from the post-Labor-Day opening last year after bills that would have allowed them to set their own calendars failed. The waiver requests were denied.
Though Trumbo was not seeking a total repeal this time around, he says his bill may have been seen by some as opening the floodgates on waiver requests. The bill could have "hampered their abilities to maintain the post-Labor-Day opening," he said.
August is a peak travel month, bolstering an economic argument for maintaining the post-Labor-Day opening.
The Virginia Hospitality and Travel Association reported last year that travel and tourism profits grew 3.1 percent after the law changed in 1986. That money translated into taxes and revenue for schools, the association reported.
"People want to take a little bit of vacation before kids get back to school," said association treasurer Roger Elmore. "Overall in the state, it's been a good thing. You can really see a lot of localities that deal with tourism, that their revenues have gone up."
Computing the revenue effect statewide is difficult, if not impossible, said Mark Brown, research manager for the Virginia Tourism Development Group.
"It's difficult to isolate the effects of that legislation on travel expenditures," Brown said. "So many other factors come into play over the years, like the actual positioning of Labor Day within the month and cost-of-living."
That the bulk of lobbying efforts on behalf of the tourism industry come from the eastern part of the state is a myth. The Roanoke-area hotel industry in past years has taken a stand in favor of the post-Labor-Day opening.
"It greatly enhances their occupancy when schools do not open prior to the Labor Day weekend," said Martha Mackey, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau. "There is a substantial difference between schools opening prior to Labor Day and after."
Several years ago, Beth Poff, executive director for the Mill Mountain Zoo, computed figures on zoo visits before the post-Labor-Day law was enacted and after. Poff said she and other zoo officials were concerned that a mandated pre-Labor-Day opening would result in a loss of summer help, many of them high school students.
"We looked at 1986 to 1988 and saw a 40 percent increase on that Labor Day weekend over years prior to 1986 when the law passed," Poff said. "It's a whole different weekend now."
Yet some school officials continue to view the post-Labor-Day opening as intruding on the school calendar.
"I do not think we're insensitive to the impact of tourism," said Deanna Gordon, assistant superintendent for Roanoke County schools. "We just see the problem differently. School divisions want to make their own decisions about calendar issues."
Elmore, treasurer of the hospitality and travel association, said change in the statute would come only after "radical change in the way we educate."
"Until the argument for year-round schools becomes more clear, we're adamant that it should stay the way it is," Elmore said.