Good Friday is not a school holiday in Hillsborough County.
Could have fooled us. More than two out of every five students stayed away in droves, including about 70 percent of high schoolers. In addition, nearly 20 percent of bus drivers and 10 percent of teachers took the day off. There weren’t enough substitutes to go around.
Those showing up had to feel the sham-school-day joke was on them. Same thing — actually worse — happened in 2008, the last time a school day fell on Good Friday.
It’s expected that the School Board will take up the controversial calendar issue at its upcoming meeting later this month. It’s likely that it will decide to relent and make Good Friday an official holiday again. FCAT schedules, the cost of Good Friday substitute teachers ($68,000) and the avoidance of another busy-work, educational travesty point in that direction.
It’s disheartening. Such a non-secular holiday designation will encourage, for example, more Jewish and Muslim lobbying for holidays aligned with their religions. And why not? Good Friday is not a de facto secular holiday such as Christmas. It’s religiously specific.
Board member Doretha Edgecomb is right when she noted that the student absentee rate is reflective of family choices. Even the president of the Hillsborough County PTA pulled her 7th grade son early to attend a religious service.
Two other points. Let’s not kid ourselves. While some adults might be responding or rationalizing religiously, a lot of students are using Good Friday as a beach day.
One other thing. This was not a good time to remind the Legislature, seemingly hell-bent on teacher-unfriendly “accountability” bills, that one of the state’s largest school districts is still grappling with the separation of church and state. And just spent $68,000 for one day of busy-work substitutes.