School's out: coastal businesses praise calendar change.

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An often-quoted study of tourism by East Carolina University professor James Chandler proclaims that a 10-day delay in the start of the public-school year would produce additional tourism revenue of $377.5 million a year for North Carolina. The state General Assembly put that theory into practice starting with the 2005-06 school year, and, while it's too early to measure specific effects, anecdotal evidence, especially along the coast, shows that it might have delivered on Chandler's promises.

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The new law prohibits schools from starting earlier than Aug. 25 and finishing later than June 10. Before this year, 92% of the state's public schools started between July 30 and Aug. 12. The academic year still lasts 180 days, which means that even though some workdays were eliminated, students may not get out of school as early.

Many school officials still are unhappy about the change. "Our board was not in favor of this, but it passed and now it is the law," says Vanessa Jeter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Instruction. Most of the objections have centered on whether there are enough days before standardized testing and on whether the start of the school year should be decided locally.

Chandler is collecting data for a five-year analysis of financial activity in the hospitality and tourism industries in North Carolina, but it won't be ready until later this year. He's leading an effort to examine month-to-month tourism activity statewide over five years ending in December 2005, and he will submit his findings to the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research. "The year isn't over yet. I know anecdotally what I've heard, and that's that they had really high hopes and weren't at all disappointed with where they were in June and July and going into August."

Meanwhile, other states have been watching the effects of North Carolina's legislation and considering similar changes. Save South Carolina Summers, an advocacy group seeking to standardize the summer break in the Palmetto State, says that in 2005, about 90% of public-school districts started the first or second week of August.

Data for Chandler's five-year study is being collected from North Carolina hotel and restaurant associations. He says it will be interesting to see how October and November statistics were affected by Hurricane Katrina and subsequent gas-price hikes. "There are always going to be factors that affect tourism."

Among the businesses...