Governor’s Mandate Prompts Maryland Schools to Cut Back on Spring Break
Gov. Larry Hogan speaks at a news conference on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016 near Annapolis, Md. Brian Witte / AP File Photo
School district leaders had warned they would have to make tough choices to comply with Larry Hogan’s executive order on the start of the school year.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan caught school district leaders in his state off guard in August when he announced that he wanted the start of the new school year to be after Labor Day.
Such a move, Hogan said, would not only help beach communities and other summertime destinations but would also bring other benefits, like reduced energy costs for school districts, and in the case of Baltimore’s city schools and fewer number of days when non-air conditioned buildings are closed due to excessive heat.
Although Hogan’s idea may be popular, school district leaders across Maryland warned that such a mandate would impact scheduling and have other consequences.
The Republican governor, who signed executive orders on the matter in October, called the backlash to his plan "one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard in my life," The Baltimore Sun reported at the time. "There really is almost no controversy. There is a handful of vocal people who want to ignore the law, and the overwhelming majority of Marylanders, everywhere I go, teachers say to me, they love it, everywhere we go," he continued.
But will those same people like Hogan’s plan come springtime? For some Maryland school districts, the later start means cutting back on spring break and other vacation days.
As The Washington Post reported Monday:
Under Hogan’s executive order, the state’s 24 school districts can’t open before Labor Day and must end by June 15. But to meet that compressed timeline and still maintain the required 180 academic days or more per school year, districts have had to consider trade-offs.
In Anne Arundel, Carroll and Baltimore counties, those trade-offs involve cutting back on the number of spring break vacation days. Other school districts are examining various ways to make the school calendar work.
“We didn’t have a lot of options,” Charles McDaniels Jr., chairman of the Baltimore County Board of Education, told The Post.
In Anne Arundel County, which includes Annapolis, the school board approved a future school year calendar that cuts back on one vacation day around Christmas and the number of bad weather days, the Capital Gazette reported on Nov. 2.
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty and is based in Seattle.
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