Someone is finally mentioning something about Initiated Measure 3. The 'save our cheap student labor' act
Read it all here. For a measure which messes with schools, this one is floating under the radar.A ballot measure that would prevent South Dakota’s fall school term from creeping into the summer months has drawn strong support from South Dakota’s tourism industry but remains opposed by education groups such as the South Dakota Education Association and the Associated School Boards of South Dakota.
and..
The measure would also allow more time for summer vacations, help students and teachers alike avoid super-heated classrooms and likely boost South Dakota’s retail economy, according to the “Save Our South Dakota Summers” initiative committee.
and...
Those who oppose the measure say it would put students and teachers at an educational disadvantage by hindering teachers’ attempts to continue their own education during the summer and abandoning the students-first approach to aligning the school calendar.
According to Brian Aust, director of communications for the Associated School Boards of South Dakota, the required number of school days would remain at about 175, pushing the end-of-school date further into the spring and summer months.
“In states where this kind of measure has passed, it has adversely affected the way teachers get continued learning,” he said.
Sorry, cynical me thinks it has less to do with classrooms that get a bit warm, and more to do with tourism interests who want to keep their inexpensive labor force in plance for an extra few weeks as they try to wring every dollar they can from the visitor industry.
Silly businesses. why don't you JUST PLAN FOR IT like every other business plans for known changes. I think this referred measure is at best silly, and at it's worst, exploitive of their student labor force.
Comments
What this is really about is the fact that the tourism industry wants to get people from rural SD to spend one more weekend in RC or even SF and leave their money in those communities.
This should be a local decision. And many of the tourism districts have already moved their school start date... now they want the rest of us to do the same. Bad idea.
I live in the Denver area. I continually see billboards on major streets asking folks to take the 6-hour drive northeast to the Black Hills. I also see quite a few commericials on local cable hawking weekend trip packages to Deadwood. My understanding is that a lot of folks here are taking advantage of those plans, apparently sick-and-tired of the crowded drive to Vail and Aspen on most weekends.
BTW, most Colorado schools start at least two weeks before Labor Day. Leave the dates alone.
This is just an example of past comments on school start dates.
"I think this referred measure is at best silly, and at it's worst, exploitive of their student labor force."
This amendment is definitely silly, but your assertion that giving students the option to work a few more weeks would be "exploitive" is equally ridiculous.
There is no question that part-time employees make up a much larger portion of the workforce than it used to. This makes them even more vital to the success of businesses. Many businesses couldn’t make it without young workers, who in turn are able to learn many valuable business experiences before heading off into the career world. Good students make good employees, which is echoed by many small businesses around our state. When businesses loose their young employees at the end of summer, the remaining workforce is stretched thin and results in higher labor costs in order to fill the void.
From a sales perspective it’s a very significant economic issue. One school district in western South Dakota started on the day after Labor Day for the first time since 1997. According to a retailer in that community, impact for the month was as predicted a much stronger finish to the “selling” season. In particular, the Saturday and Sunday proceeding Labor Day. In this business for example, the later start date impacts the Back to School shopping season approximately 10-12%. That’s real money and in most retail businesses impacts the bottom-line, which by the way is how retailers are able to provide jobs to the young people.
Spend a little time visiting with non-tourism businesses and ask how the school start date impacts their business and labor supply. Initiated measure #3 is a good compromise that makes business and education partners, not adversaries.
You bet it does - that's why they have the power to vote on this themselves. They go through the school board, and if they are upset at what the school board does, they can refer it to a vote.
It makes absolutely NO sense to make this a statewide law UNLESS they are trying to spur instate traveling. Otherwise, why would Edgemont have to do it? To provide seasonal workers to who?
Then anon says something stupid about changing it for the taxpayers. That's ridiculous.
Lets get this straight. Each community, at any time, can refer the school start date to a vote.
If this passes, though, those citizens lose that right. They lose that fundamental right to use their vote to impact their own lives.
It's just crazy, all these ballot initiatives coming forward wanting the state to make decisions for people.
It chaps my ass faster than bad Taco Bell.
Just maybe those of you that feel your students labor is cheap are under estemating their value to your economy or are just plain uninformed on the total economic impact an issue like this has.
Two more words - Vote No
A state referendum with all elgible voters given the opportunity to express their wishes - that IS local control!