Summer vacation more important than education

If the Kentucky Legislature wants to send the exact wrong signal about the commonwealth's commitment to better education -- which still has a huge distance to travel by any measure -- it should just go ahead and approve a misguided effort to micro-manage when the state's school districts can begin their school years.

As reported today by The Enquirer's Bill Croyle, Senate Bill 134 would mandate that most of the state's districts couldn't start any earlier than the third Monday in August. Many districts in Northern Kentucky start earlier than that now.

While this is characterized as a grass-roots effort by citizens who don't want to interfere with summer vacation time, elements of Kentucky's tourism industry have pushed this for years.

Both notions are misguided. The need for cheap, summertime labor at tourist spots pales by comparison to the need for school districts to set calendars that make the most sense for their students -- or maybe you want Johnnie or Jennie to pump gas into boats at Lake Cumberland after graduation, too. If anything, Kentucky's school year should be longer.

And local school superintendents point out quite correctly that the school calendar should be a local decision. If citizens don't like the local calendar, they can elect new school board members.

Legislators should kill this bill and devote their energy on education into helping students achieve at higher levels.