The Obama administration has indicated it would like to extend the school year further into the summer, arguing that students get too little class time compared with other nations. But as this news story points out, some are criticizing the move, saying it would strain district budgets and hurt travel and tourism. An excerpt:
But while Obama's proposal is meant to improve education, critics say a curtailed summer vacation will have a dire economic impact on school systems, which could be forced to retrofit their schools for air conditioning, pay overtime to teachers and incur higher utility costs.They also warn that the leisure industry, which relies on family vacation travel, could take a major hit. "Fewer vacation days will dry up the industry's labor source and lead to huge losses of revenue for American hotels and resorts," said Joe McInerney, president and CEO of the American Hotel and Lodging Association."From Memorial Day to Labor day, we hire many high school and college students for summer employment to work," McInerney told FOXNews.com. "If we don't have those people, there will not be enough Americans out there available to fill those positions.""A lot of different people are affected by cutting out travel," he said. "This is not the right thing to do on a national basis."
Kelly Puente joined the Press-Telegram in 2006 as an editorial assistant and eventually worked her way up to general assignement reporter. Over the years, she’s covered everything from crime and breaking news to human interest and the cities of Bellflower and Cerritos. Kelly is a Long Beach resident and graduate of Cal State Long Beach. She’s new to the education beat and is looking for great stories.
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