This year, spring break will be from Apr. 17 until Apr. 22, a mere six days. MCPS has also decided that this is not permanent and days could be removed from spring break if school is cancelled due to snow or other unforeseen circumstances.

This is a huge issue as students’ and teachers’ families plan breaks months in advance in order to secure a low price and reserve their trip while it is still available.

This shortened spring break is mainly due to Governor Larry Hogan’s executive order that schools must start after Labor Day and end by June 15. “I think that it is not effective and mean to the students and their families,” senior Aaron Strauss said.

Hogan implemented these rules for three reasons, the first being to provide families more time to enjoy summer and relax. His second reason for shortening the school year was to prevent students from having to attend classes in the sweltering heat of late August. Finally, he put these rules in place to provide an economic boost to the state, especially the beachside communities along Maryland’s Eastern Shore. “Hogan had a good idea with making summer longer but it sucks for us having less days in our spring break,” junior Brooke Simon said.

If MCPS decides that it is necessary for another day to be removed from spring break, students will decide not to come to school as they either already have plans for spring break or just do not want to come to school because they know no one else will be here. When families spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on a family vacation for spring break they are not just going to miss it or spend more money to reschedule a day later because there is school. “I think it’s stupid that MCPS can take more days off of spring break because no one is going to come to school if they do,” senior Trey Wilson said.

Students are also harmed as they have such a long summer in between learning and may not retain information from the previous year. “I’m in favor of a longer school year, I think it is not in teachers best interest to have so much time off from teaching and students from learning,” English teacher Zachary Lowe said.

In order to stop all the complaints about the shortened school year, a couple more days could be added to the end of the school year to ensure that snow days will not take off of spring break. “MCPS should have made sure that we have more allotted snow days to save spring break,” Wilson said.

6 of 6 editorial board members agreed