South Carolina is a diverse collection of communities with different needs and challenges. Managing public education across the state will likewise require different approaches, including with regard to scheduling school times.

Toward that end, Beaufort Representative Shannon Erickson has sponsored legislation to allow school districts to opt to adjust their calendars to more or less than 180 calendar days, as long as the equivalent number of instructional hours are met. This bill - H.3035 - passed the House and is now over in the Senate's Education Committee awaiting further action.

Flex time is a common practice in the workplace, allowing employers to better adjust to workload or unique local situations, such as traffic patterns. We don't see why South Carolina schools, often behind the rest of the country in management practices, can't adopt similar approaches.

Erickson's bill make sense. As such, it deserves the support of the Senate.