The House State Affairs committee heard about an hour of testimony before advancing House Bill 10-93. The measure sets the start of an academic year to no earlier than the final Monday in August.
The tourism industry supports the measure to establish a start date for academic years. Officials say it allows employees still in school to work longer into the summer, or to take a late-summer family vacation. As has happened often during the 20-14 session - opponents bring up local control. Dick Tieszen represents the Associated School Boards of South Dakota—he says local boards should have complete say as to the first day of school.
Tieszen says, "If the people of that community don’t believe that’s the right decision, then they ought to have the opportunity to express that, by a vote in a referendum. They have that today. So I would express to you this is not a situation that requires the Legislature to impose its will on all the districts in the state and identify when a school should start.”
A co-sponsor of the measure, Representative Christine Erickson of Sioux Falls, counters by saying with the bill, there’s still plenty of opportunity to set the opening day of the school year.
Erickson says, "I have great respect for the people who came up here and opposed this bill—we all hear the tagline, ‘local control, local control’—I appreciate that, I understand that. This is not a mandate, it’s a standard, that just pushes it back—saying, ‘You can start on a Wednesday, a Thursday, a Friday, or even after Labor Day; it’s your choice at the local level. You just cannot start before this date.’”
The bill passes through the committee and on to the House Floor, with a vote of eight-to-five.