House Bill 360 Could Take Away School Breaks
By: Megan Hunter
Updated: April 14, 2012
A bill is making its way through the
legislature that has school superintendents rising up in opposition. House bill 360 passed Thursday and is now on its way to the Senate floor.
The bill
would give schools a 1,080 hour school year instead of a 180 day school year.
This change would give schools the flexibility to add time onto each school day
and get out of school earlier. But according to the bill, schools will not be
allowed to start earlier than August 20th, and must finish by May 24th.
Dothan City Schools Superintendent Tim Wilder said that many superintendents oppose the bill. "I love the flexibility. I love being able to say 'instead of going this many hours a day we're going to extend our day by ten minutes.' We're going to be able to get out of school earlier and cut some days down. That would be great if they left it like that, but they didn't. That takes away the local control of school districts."
Wilder says this new school schedule
will save schools money, but the lack of time off will hurt students' learning
abilities.
