|
|
|
Opinion
Editorials
|
|
|
|
Texas schools pay more to cool schools,
study shows
Later start to school year could
save millions for teachers,
academic aid
By
Tina Bruno
|
Editors
note: Tina
Bruno is executive director of Texans for a
Traditional School Year.
|
|
|
Most of us don't mind paying
property taxes when we know the money is going
to better the education of our children, but we expect
school administrators and school board members to be good
stewards of our money. Data collected from Texas schools
and schools across the nation shows that starting classes
in August is not fiscally responsible and could be taking
money away from academic instruction and teacher benefits.
In December 2002, the Texas
Comptroller issued a special report that
focused on the increased cost of the early August school
start date. The reported found that the “present structure
of the school year may also be costing districts as much
as $10 million in higher cooling costs each year.”
That amount of money was shocking to many of us. But it’s
hard to understand just how it affects a local school
system. A local perspective on the costs of the early
August school start date was required.
Texans for a Traditional School
Year surveyed school systems across the state.
Of the 40 that responded, the difference in their utility
bills in August verses May was more than $5.7 million.
Larger school districts paid as much as $551,000 more for
August energy than they did in May.
Even if a district could save a
mere $40,000 a year by pushing back the start
of school from the state-recommended week of August 21 to
the day after Labor Day, would it be worth it?
To me the answer is a simple YES. Why? Veteran teachers
report that with $40,000, districts could pay retired
teachers $25 an hour to provide 1,600 hours of small group
and individualized tutoring for students.
If each teacher worked with groups of four children for
one hour, 6,400 tutoring slots would be available
annually. So students who don't immediately catch onto a
subject wouldn't have to wait to get extra help. Students
could get help within a few days of needing it, and would
be able to build on the skills throughout the rest of the
year. Kids who were just a few points shy of passing the
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) would have
been in a better position to pass the test the first time
around with a few months of small group tutoring.
High school students must pass the 11th-grade TAKS to
graduate high school. Third graders who didn’t pass the
TAKS last year won’t be allowed into the next grade. And
that no-promotion policy will be enforced in more grades
in the years to come.
With the stakes so high, don't we owe it to our children
to use as many dollars as possible for their instruction?
Even if you don’t see a need for small group tutoring,
$40,000 could purchase additional classroom supplies and
more up-to-date materials for our teachers. The money
could buy 22 new computers for our schools – at the
average consumer price.
Texas schools aren’t the only ones with budget shortfalls,
but we seem to be missing the boat by not thinking
“outside the box” about ways to save money and increase
classroom spending.
Plagued with the same budget
shortfall as many Texas schools, the Tulsa
School District made a bold decision last year. Officials
in Oklahoma’s largest school system figured that by
pushing back the start of the school year from August 19
to the day after Labor Day, the district would save a
minimum of $200,000. The district now says the simple move
saved between $300,000 to $400,000.
“There’s no doubt that not holding class during the
hottest month of the year made a big difference,” said
John Hamill, spokesman for Tulsa Public Schools. “We have
saved a goodly amount of money this year by starting
school two weeks later than we had been and through
routine energy conservation awareness.”
In Tulsa, the September school start date didn’t seem to
hurt preparation for that state’s standardized exam. “We
didn’t see an appreciable slippage of state test scores in
our district,” Hamill added.
According to the web site of the American College Test,
one of the nation’s most widely used college entrance
exams, students in only seven states earned average
composite scores of 22 or better on the 2002 ACT Exam.
None of the other 43 states earned a higher composite
score. Most of those seven top-scoring states administer
mid-term exams after the winter break and begin school in
the later part of August or early September.
The research has been completed,
the numbers are in. When you start school does
not impact academic performance. But our school calendars
could be taking money away from academic instruction – the
one area that we all agree has a real impact on student
performance. |
|
|
