>>... and Labor Day being the first day of school when we used to start in September. Now, I can't think of many schools that don't start in August. Starting Labor Day, I think, was an anti-union thang.
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>Interesting. In my area, most schools still start after Labor Day, though many of the teachers report the week before.

Some of our schools start as early as August 2nd this year. Our Legislature did pass a law several years ago regarding these early school starts, but in typical weenie politician fashion, they added a clause that the school districts could petition the State for a waiver in order to start earlier.

We are a little luckier in that our district does not start until Aug 16 for the kids [veteran teachers 1 week earlier and new ones 2 weeks earlier]. I can't imagine what our districts could save in cooling costs if they just waited until the first week in Sept like we used to some 25 years ago. As you know, August is brutal in the south, and I would much prefer to take our family vacations during that month and flee to the north. Unfortunately our schools for the most part have screwed that up for us.