Local Control part 2

Rep Larry Howes (rep.larry.howes@house.mn) from Walker is opposed to having local control in School Boards. He was the sponsor of the currently law that forbids a pre-Labor Day start statewide, and he is the one who killed HF195 in committee, and now he made the motion to remove the local decision from HF2 in the Finance Committee.

He says that starting school before Labor Day would harm tourism - revenue in resorts, bait shops, gas stations, shopping centers, and convenience stores would be affected, as well as the 4-H, State Fair, airlines, campgrounds, hotels, and the Chamber of Commerce. That's quite a list.

Oh I forgot teenage summer workers who apparently wouldn't be able to get any job at all for the summer if they had to go back to school a few days early.

Rep Howes and the St Paul hive-mind are wrong. Those elected officials are not smarter and wiser than the ones on local school boards. St Paul wants to decide when school starts, when it ends, how many days and hours of instruction, what test you will take, what will be on the test, and what the passing score will be on the test. They decide how much money will be spent per pupil, and how it will be spent.

All we are asking for is the ability to make the decision based on what is best for our own communities. Rep. Howes says the issue is not dead yet. I hope he is right.