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House Speaker Thom Tillis spoke at a town hall meeting Monday night and, according to the Charlotte Observer, said he was ready to reverse a law that added five days to the school calendar. From the Observer (link):

In response to a question about changes to the school year, he said lawmakers are likely to revoke the change passed earlier this year that would lengthen the school year by five days to 185.

Last week state school board members said the change should take effect when the new school year starts next August.

Supporters say the change will benefit student performance. Critics say five extra days will cost school districts thousands of dollars to, among other things, run school busses and heat or cool classrooms.

"My guess is that will likely come off the books next year," Tillis said. "I'd put the odds at 70 percent or 80 percent."

He said later the change could come with revisions to the state budget during the so-called short session of the legislature that starts in May.

But not everybody who has a say in the state education budget is so eager to get rid of the extra five day provision.

"The legislation was serious legislation," said Sen. Jerry Tillman, an Archdale Republican, who had pushed for the five extra days. He said North Carolina students need more instructional time in the classroom in order to compete with students from around the world. American and tar heel students spend less time in the classroom than students do in most other industrialized countries, he said.

"To compete, I think we  need more instructional time with the students and I don't know how you get it without doing that," Tillman said. He said that the state legislature should find the money to help school districts with the added costs associated with the added days. He also said that lawmakers should give school districts more flexibility in setting their calendars.

Tillman is a chairman of both  the Senate's education policy committee and its education budget committee, so his word carries a lot of weight on the matter.

More comments coming in a moment, but you can listen to my full conversation with Tillman by clicking on the player below.

Update: In some respects, this seems to be one of those House-versus-Senate issues. It was Tillman and his Senate colleagues who pushed the extra five days through last summer and it is the House that is ready to abandon the issue as too costly.

"I think it's something we're going to have to look at," said Rep. Bryan Holloway, a King Republican who chairs key education committees in the House. "I think the concept or idea of putting more class time with kids is a good thing. However, my concern with us doing it was the budgetary conditions we have and the struggles that counties would have trying to implement that."

Holloway said he might favor allowing school districts to opt-out of the extra five days or just repealing them all together.

Click below to listen to my conversation with Holloway.

Click here for a separate post with reaction from Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson (link).