Summer breaks may shorten
Texas lawmakers discuss funding to make the school year 30 days longer
AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers are thinking about giving school districts money to lengthen the school year, and superintendents are for it.
The Texas Commission on Public School Finance in December recommended that the Legislature help to pay for up to 30 additional instructional days to the 180-day school calendar. The panel recommended the state pitch in half the cost of each school day, to a maximum of $50 million per day in the first year, according to the commission’s report.
Several superintendents testified before the House Public Education Committee that the investment would be worth it because the additional time gives struggling students, including those from low-income backgrounds, more time to study and would help them to learn to read at grade level. In Texas, just four
in 10 students read at grade level by third grade.
“We’re not keeping our students long enough throughout the year,” Dr. Xavier De La Torre, a superintendent in El Paso, told the committee on Tuesday. He represents the state’s largest school districts for the Texas Urban Council of Superintendents, including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Fort Worth. “So any resources that would allow us to continue the school year into the summer — not a summer school program or an enrichment program — would benefit these students.”
Texas now requires at least 75,600 minutes of instruction, about 180 sevenhour days.
Texas lawmakers are now crafting an education bill to change how the state funds schools, which could include a provision allowing school districts to add days to the school year. That omnibus legislation has yet to be filed, but will also likely include several elements, including an incentive for schools to offer full-day prekindergarten and increasing state spending on low-income children and students who speak little or no English.
So far, the three top leaders in state government have made no push for extending the school day, instead focusing on other initiatives such as boosting pay for teachers.