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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2011 > February > 07 > Entry
Editorial: Lost week is a lot of school to miss
The politicians, school superintendents and kids who think Ohio needs to have five “calamity” days — days students don’t have to make up if school is canceled — picked a great year to plead their case.
The weather has been dreadful. Schools are canceling class for good reason, what with roads being so treacherous. Many districts have used up the new maximum of just three days off — reduced this year — and we’re not even halfway through February.
Nonetheless, this debate about whether to go back to a full free week is amazing. What does all the resistance to “make-up days” say to kids?
Most employers recognize that some people will occasionally not be able to get to work on account of the weather. But workers typically have to use vacation time or forfeit pay unless the business closes. They certainly don’t get a week of free days every winter.
That practice has something to do with the fact that whatever employees are being paid to do still has to get done, frightful weather or not. If the work doesn’t get done, somebody loses money or access to a service.
Some parents who absolutely had to go to work have had to pay for child care this week. No one’s giving them a bonus for this expense.
Yes, there are complications to extending the school year, canceling breaks or having faculty and students come to work on previously scheduled holidays. Families buy plane tickets for spring break. The kids get antsy if they’re still going to school into the summer. Union contracts may not allow for the extension of the school year (even though employees got paid for the unexpected days off).
But, really, the only reason these issues are issues is that adults have decided that they don’t want to rearrange their vacations or inconvenience themselves or, heaven forbid, recalibrate their and their children’s expectations when Mother Nature shines on them in winter.
In the adult world — which school is supposed to be preparing kids for — not only are most workers still expected to show even when there’s a blizzard, many actually have to work longer and harder. Emergency rooms fill up; road crews stay out for hours on end; nursing home employees take double shifts; grocery stores stay open when they might otherwise be closed; truck drivers and mail carriers still finish their routes.
“Snow days,” in other words, are an occasion when much of the world has to kick it up notch, as opposed to go back to bed.
It’s funny: When there’s a bona fide calamity, say, a hurricane or a school burns down, communities go to exceptional lengths to get kids back in school quickly. They create classrooms in churches; they throw up mobile schools. They want children to get back to normal, even in the face of a disaster that is monumental.
But let there be a snowstorm or the roads ice up, and that’s cause for a vacation day or two or three, with no acknowledgement that work is falling through the cracks.
“Calamity” in Ohio — and in school circles — has an odd meaning.
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