Kinder Signs Uniform School Day Legislation

Summer vacation will be a little longer for some Missouri kids this year, and that will in turn, bolster statewide tourism.

That's the aim of Senate Bill 64, which was signed by Lt. Governor Peter Kinder in Branson Monday. The new law keeps schools from starting their year no earlier than ten days before Labor Day. Tourism leaders say schools' earlier start-up dates have been costing the state's tourism industry a lot of money. What used to be a 90-day season has dwindled down to a 45-60 day season, according to business owners who appeared at a press conference with Kinder.

Still, lawmakers at the press conference said that school boards still maintain local control in this bill, and that the real goal of this legislation is giving school districts "guidance and structure."

Rep. Maynard Wallace said that much of the education community viewed anything as "interference with local control" in previous years. But Wallace stressed that local control is still essentially protected in this compromise.

A school board can still set an early August school start date if that board holds a public meeting to discuss that start date, and a majority of the board votes to approve it.

Kinder called the legislation "a compromise in a long-running struggle," that will bring a real economic benefit to Branson.

Rep. Wallace said the bill didn't go quite as far as he wanted it to, but Rep. Dennis Wood called it a good compromise.

According to the legislative office of Sen. Jack Goodman, in 2004, the state may have lost over 11 million dollars in tourism revenue due to early school start dates.

Some educators argued that early school start dates were necessary in order to have ample time to prepare for MAP testing. Lawmakers rejected that argument, and Rep. Wallace promised that MAP scores will not drop as a result of this legislation.