A proposal that could have forced dozens of year-round schools in North Carolina to switch to a traditional calendar is dead for now, but the tourism industry isn’t giving up on the issue.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports that a state budget compromise unveiled this week doesn’t include wording from a Senate plan that would have restricted the kinds of schools allowed to have year-round schedules.
That provision would have permitted year-round schedules only at schools using multitracks in which students are split into four rotating groups.
Families at single-track year-round schools, in which all students are on the same schedule, feared their schools would be forced to adopt a traditional calendar. North Carolina has 88 such schools.
A group called Save NC Year-Round Schools expressed relief that the change was not imposed on single-track schools.
Tourism representatives advocated for placing restrictions on year-round schools because they believe long summer breaks make it easier for families to take vacations and engage in other tourist activities.
In 2004, the state legislature exempted year-round schools when it passed a law preventing traditional-calendar schools from starting before late August and ending after mid-June.
Legislators also exempted a type of year-round schedule called modified-calendar schools but said no more could be added. But the calendar law doesn’t define what are considered year-round or modified-calendar schools.
