Iowa Schools Could Start Earlier Under Senate Bill

The Iowa Senate Education Committee has approved a bill that would change Iowa’s limitation on when public and private schools can start in the fall. 

Current law says August 23rd is the earliest schools may start. It was set a decade ago at the urging of then-Governor Terry Branstad to ensure the Iowa State Fair was over before schools started up. Before the mandatory school start date was set in 2015, 96 percent of Iowa school districts started BEFORE August 23rd.

This newly-proposed bill would once again let schools start earlier – as early as the second to last Monday in August. Senator Tom Shipley, a Republican from Nodaway, says that means schools could start as early as August 18th in some years.

Shipley says the bill would give schools a little more flexibility.

Under Iowa’s current school start limitation, nearly all Iowa schools started this past year on Friday, August 23rd. Democratic Senator Sarah Trone-Garriott, from Waukee, says she’d be okay with the change.

The bill to let schools start as early as August 18th in some years is opposed by Adventureland and Iowa Travel Industry Partners, an organization that represents restaurants, hotels and tourism spots around the state. The Iowa State Fair’s lobbyist is monitoring the bill’s progress, but hasn’t registered in opposition to moving up the school start date.

story courtesy of Radio Iowa