As reported by the Baltimore Sun, there may be a news this week in the debate on Maryland’s school start-dates in Maryland.
As described in the Sun,
The state’s two most powerful and prominent advocates for pushing the first day of school to after Labor Day have scheduled a joint “major announcement” for Wednesday about the start date for Maryland’s public schools.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan and Democratic Comptroller Peter Franchot will be in Ocean City that afternoon, the beachside town where both have publicly campaigned to delay school until after the traditional end of summer.
School start dates are currently a local decision of the Boards of Education in each jurisdiction. The Maryland Association of Boards of Education has opposed statewide mandates on school start dates in the past. As described,
MABE supports preserving and protecting the rights of local communities and their respective boards of education to adopt school calendars; school calendars that reflect not only state testing schedules and mandated holidays, but also other important local considerations. Local boards serve a broad constituency of professional educators, parents, students, businesses and other community groups. Local boards believes that imposing a statewide start date for the school year would impose unwarranted restrictions on the prerogative of local communities to consider and decide on their local school system calendar.
For more information, see the full story from the Sun: Hogan, Franchot to make ‘major announcement’ on school starting date.
See also, previous posts on Conduit Street:
And see this statement from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education:
