Isn’t “Bob for Jobs” anymore?
I watched the Governor’s press conference as he rolled out his education agenda, and his flip-flop about letting the school year start in August didn’t seem to fit.
Why was he kowtowing to the teacher’s unions and changing a position he’s held for 20 years, even as recently as last session?
His excuse yesterday that he’s not just representing Virginia Beach may have answered the question about which campaign 4×8 sign was more accurate, but didn’t quite cut it as a policy explanation.
So, let’s make a few things clear.
Starting school years early doesn’t mean ending school years early. Cities are just as likely to add days to the Break Formerly Known as Christmas or create buffers for bad weather days. That means you’ve just extended the school year, not moved it forward.
Of course, that’s what proponents will say the benefit is, but no one will mandate that. Believe me, local school boards will give themselves more breathing room throughout the year over ending earlier in June 100 chances out of 100.
So, what are we getting? A longer school year.
Besides, the response to “Kids don’t do anything in school in June” is “Fire the teachers let that happen.”
If we oppose school mandates, then let’s oppose school mandates. The Governor said that local folks know best. Really? If that’s the basis for education decision making, why do we have the SOLs in the first place?
The SOLs are the Mother of all mandates. Republicans seemed to be pretty keen on those mandates, but I guess some mandates are better than others.
The 180-day minimum school day is a mandate, too. Is any flexibility on that mandate coming forward any time soon? That could solve any “schedule flexibility” that the Governor says he wants to give localities without impinging on summers and hurting tourism job creation.
No one’s test scores are improving because of this. No test scores in May are going to improve because we added class days in August. The notion is absolutely silly, and it’s buffoonish to make the case. To the Governor’s credit, he didn’t try.
No one can make an academic case for this. This is not more time in the classroom. It’s not even more time in the classroom before the SOL tests, since swapping days in August for extra Christmas Days actually HURTS testing efforts. You’re moving teaching days further back from the testing dates this way.
The only way someone can make the case that this gets more class days prior to SOLs is if that is mandated in the bill, but it won’t be. The whole purpose of this was to end a mandate, not add one.
So, we’ll have a longer school year, and guess what the teachers’ unions are going to use that for?
Bob was better when he was for jobs.
