Our story cited several examples of late summer employment difficulties, including Golzbein's Wild Kingdom, which eliminates the admission price to generate crowds on the weekends once school begins, and Water Country in Portsmouth, which shuts down rides on a rotating basis to accommodate the dwindling late-summer staff. The general manager of Water Country, Dick Samuels, added that kids in the area whose school year begins after Labor Day have the advantage over those who go back before the holiday when it comes to getting a job. We've got to get the balance between the educational and business components. There are huge issues regarding the summer vacation. To some parents, particularly single parents and those parents where both adults have full-time jobs, the long span of time between each school year creates nightmarish logistical problems.
Children are sometimes alone.
Incomes are affected because day care or camp or some other type of daytime activity has to be paid for. Teachers, obviously, do not have these same headaches because they have the same time off as their children. We hope that teacher unions are sensitive to the needs of both young people and parents when it comes to finally talking about altering the school year to benefit these families. While it could take some time to iron out a workable solution to these very real and taxing problems, it is time that some aspects of the summer vacation be looked at. No one's education will be affected by starting school a couple of weeks late.