Calendar flexibility is an issue that received much more attention in this last school year, and for good reasons.

It should get a lot more attention this year. Hurricanes and a pandemic can do that.

By 2017, North Carolina was one of only one of 14 states that had state laws that governed school calendars. The graphic below is from the Feb. 2017 Final Report to the Joint Legislative Program Evaluation Oversight Committee on school calendars.

What is also shows is that North Carolina was at the time was one of the TWO states in the entire country whose laws dictated when a school could start and when it had to end.

200 bills have been introduced in the NCGA over the last few years, and none have made it past committee in a legislature that had a super-majority in six of the last seven years because of opposition from another industry.

When the North Carolina Genera Assembly reconvenes for their “short” session, instead of introducing bills giving LEA’s more school calendar flexibility and letting them all stall in committee, they should put it to a vote that truly represents what the people want.

It should never take some natural disasters and a pandemic to make our legislators act on this.