Years ago, the Tax Foundation hit upon a great tool for illustrating how large our individual tax load is-- Tax Freedom Day. Starting from January 1, how many days would Americans (or residents of your state, if you break it down that way) have to work just to pay off taxes.
In a small piece of PR serendipity, Tax Freedom Day falls in April in most states. By some mid-April day, all Americans have earned enough money to pay off the income tax debt.
It makes me wonder, as we enter testing season, when our Last Teaching Day of School would be.
If all standardized testing came at the very end of the year, what would be our last day of school?
How would the pubic react if we handed out final report cards in April (or in some heavily-besieged elementary schools, March) and told parents, "Okay, the teaching year is over. But your child needs to come to school for the next 4/6/8/10 weeks just to take all their tests."
How quickly would the remaining public support for our massive testing status quo evaporate if the tests were no longer hidden and camouflaged among the teaching days of the real school year, but had to stand on their own? I'm guessing pretty quickly. Wherever you are, maybe it would help crystallize things for folks if you could tell them what the Last Teaching Day of the year would be.
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