When to begin

Michigan’s Public Act 451 purports to require school to begin after Labor Day. Most Michigan schools do not.

The law was a gift to the tourism industry lobby, passed by the state legislature in 2005. Educators were against it from the start, preferring local control. Exceptions within the law have allowed most schools that control.

Current, local, prevailing wisdom on when to start the school year was not forthcoming last Friday afternoon, a few days before school started in Standish, Au Gres, West Branch and Mio and a few days after students’ first day in Fairview. Phones at administrative offices went to voicemail, sometimes without so much as a ring.

The same went for the Michigan Association of School Boards.

A representative of the Michigan Department of Education was careful to explain the department only issues waivers to districts that request them and that they do not analyze any resulting data. Off the record, he suggested collective bargaining contracts are influential in deciding the first day. One recent news article on the subject cited construction projects as a popular reason for school administrators to set start dates after Labor Day.

Nationwide, the first day and the total number of instructional days in a school year varied widely until the early 20th century. Then for a time, most U.S. schools started after Labor Day and operated for 180 days.

In the 1990s, southern states started a trend in kicking off the school year sooner. Michigan was cited as a hold-out state where later school dates were popular even a decade after adopting PA 451. 

Educators say earlier start dates provide teachers and students more time to prepare for statewide testing, makes holidays and breaks easier to schedule, and coordinates better with summer courses at colleges and universities.

Some business owners benefit from more available child labor, which is cheaper than adult labor, and from some parents embarking on late summer leisure trips.

[Photo/Official WeChat account
of the Jilin Provincial Museum]

This would seem to be the crux of the issue in Michigan.

The tourism industry lobby commissioned a study in 2007 to prove that the law effected a boost in hotel bookings and revenues during the months of August and September that was more significant than the sag the law created in May and June.

In an ancient Chinese parable, a trainer offers his monkeys three bananas in the morning and four in the evening. The monkeys become enraged. The trainer pivots and offers four bananas in the morning and three in the evening. The monkeys are ecstatic.

Now, in the original parable, the trainer fed the monkeys dates or chestnuts or acorns or something like that. But the bits about threes and fours and mornings and evenings are the same.

And don’t you find the story more satisfying when they’re eating bananas?