Reimagine the school year to address ‘learning loss’

The Washington State Constitution describes education as its “paramount duty,” and approximately half the state’s $54 billion operating budget goes to K-12 education. Each year, lawmakers fiercely debate educational reform topics from school funding, graduation standards and collective bargaining to levy reform, curriculum choices and testing requirements. More recently, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts are focused on remote learning, technology needs and safe reopening.

One of the things missing from the overall discussion is whether the current school year model makes sense for a 21^st century school. Why is it that Washington taxpayers and people across America invest so much into their school systems while annually accepting an antiquated school calendar? Is it the most prudent use of taxpayer funds from a return on investment perspective to resign ourselves to a schedule year after year that leaves students across our state with three months of no instruction and a month of reteaching every September? If we could redesign the school calendar today, wouldn’t we do things very differently?

These are the questions I am attempting to answer in my Senate Bill 5147, a bill co-sponsored by many legislators, including committee chairs and leadership members from both parties. The bill includes a financial incentive for any district that chooses to voluntarily apportion their existing 180 state-funded school days over a full year. This will likely require multiple three-week breaks throughout the year or a few one-month breaks. The bill was recently approved by the Senate’s Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee, which is working to address “learning loss” during this legislative session.

Learning loss is something that will, unfortunately, impact nearly every student across Washington state due to the COVID pandemic and the less-than-ideal circumstances associated with statewide remote learning. Some students could spend most of their remaining K-12 years just trying to catch up to their pre-pandemic academic learning trajectory. Sadly, many students will be burdened by COVID’s educational impacts for many years to come.

These impacts likely will be compounded by the continual learning loss in future years, which occurs every summer as a result of outdated school calendars historically designed to accommodate our agricultural needs. Our current school calendar was created to allow students to have a three-month summer break to assist their families on their farms. It became commonly accepted over time and now goes largely unquestioned.

It’s now time to think about transformational changes that could help every student across Washington. With my bipartisan effort outlined in Senate Bill 5147, I’m calling on my colleagues in the Legislature to think differently about how to improve our educational delivery system. If we cannot do it now, as we prepare to pull ourselves out of this pandemic, when will we ever be able to?

Fortunately, my legislative colleagues and I are not alone. Our Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, identifies “balancing the school calendar” as one of his “10 strategic changes” for our schools, and I agree. In a Jan. 8 letter to the governor and legislators, Reykdal urged us to explore options to help our schools “become the highest performing public education system in the nation.”

I don’t think we get there by taking a three-month break every summer.