Mandatory Uniform School Start Date
Unfriendly to Public Education

Download AASB's Uniform Calendar Kit

• Surprised?  The uniform school start date is not advanced by education advocates, but by the tourism and summer camp industries who wish to have  school age workers available to staff restaurants and hotels until Labor Day. 
• Education decisions are being pushed by those interested in state tourism dollars urging legislators to restore traditional summers and claim that August is too expensive to cool school buildings. 
• Education advocates say:  Nonsense

Schools should be about student achievement and local control.

• Pushing back a start date will impact virtually every school calendar. 
• Communities will be stripped of the power to choose a schedule that works for them.  Many school systems use local committees to develop a calendar suited to their unique community needs and environment.
• Year-round schools, which have succeeded in improving achievement in some school systems and which are supported by local parents and teachers, would be jeopardized.
• Some schools use the fall breaks made possible by the earlier start date to provide tutoring for students who are behind academically.
• Fall breaks are found to improve staff and student morale and lower discipline problems.
• Students won’t be able to take exams before Christmas break when information is fresh.
• A uniform start date is NOT required by federal guidelines and No Child Left Behind. The state has been working to address what have been its own internal test reporting problems and trouble to meet its deadlines.  Requiring all 1,400 Alabama public schools adopt a uniform calendar is not necessary to handle a problem that the few affected schools could handle themselves.

Contact your legislators and secure a commitment to OPPOSE a "one-size fits all" school calendar that is neither warranted nor welcome by your local community.