Dear Editor,

I am very pro-business. I realize the importance of and support the case to spend money in Alabama and shop in my county. Doing business at home helps our schools.

The School Calendar Flexibility Act passed this past week is pro-business too.

The reasoning was that by the state mandating the start and end date for schools more money will be spent on Alabama tourism with longer summers.

Consequently this forced action will convert into more funding for education.

What a brilliant idea!

The typical family has one or two parents who work for a living. In most real world jobs, these parental units get one or two weeks’ earned vacation.

Assuming employees are allowed their vacation in the summer months, many take their kids to the beach, camping or other destinations they can afford.

Using legislative logic, none of these parents would dare go out-of-state for their vacation. Who would want to go to Disney World, Six Flags or the Great Smokey Mountains?

But with an extended summer, the kids will now be able to go to Alabama destinations for longer vacations and spend more money in our booming economy. Of course the working parents will have to get back to work, but they can just leave the kids at the beach and keep tabs through text messaging or video phone

Anyway, if parents can’t get off work, I can see those elementary and middle school kids speeding down the interstates with their surf boards on top now—buying gas, eating fast food, trying to buy beer and checking in the condo without their parents.

The only flaw here is the high school kids would be headed to Panama City Beach, since they would not want to be seen in the same state with their younger siblings.

Again, I’m proud to be pro-business. But I advocate the real business of kids.

Their job is to go to school. Their compensation for learning is usually measured with letter grades. Their reward is the best education possible. This leads to opportunity as an adult. The success of every child through education will eventually bring more revenue to our state.

But that dream is in the future. For now, we sacrifice our youth with adult greed games and likely broken promises of more money now.

Steve Martin

Birmingham