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"What about a kid who moves into the district two days before the start of classes & didn't know about, didn't do the 'summer homework'? Does he get an 'F'? Is he denied enrollment in a class that req'd summer homework on the basis that he didn't do that homework?"

Legally he would have to be either excused from the work or given ample opportunity to make it up.

"I'm with the parent & kid on this one. The teachers certainly 'work' on the basis of a contract with specified calendar limits. Moreover, if the kid wanted to go to summer school, he could enroll in 'summer school', for which he would accumulate extra credit towards graduation. And finally, a 16-17 year old kid in high school honors calculus could damn well spend the summer taking classes at a local university & be earning credits towards a college degree. This is a clear case of the public school overstepping its bounds and IMO, they can go fly a kite."

Let me repeat, this is just like regular homework. I, speaking as a student myself, actually endorse the idea before taking some advanced classes. From what I hear, teaching some of the AP classes would be impossible without it.

The point is this: The Larsons argue that if teachers want to assign homework during the summer vacation, the homework should be voluntary and not factored into the student's grade without the student's consent.

The entire argument pivots on the whether or not teachers have legal authority to require schoolwork during summer 'vacation'. Or to put it another way, do teachers have the authority to create defacto year round school, school that is absent classroom instruction for roughly 3 months of that 'year'?

I, speaking as a student myself, actually endorse the idea before taking some advanced classes. From what I hear, teaching some of the AP classes would be impossible without it.

Not to be a smartass, but that is what is called 'hearsay'. I would need a lot of documentation that attempts to prove that a boat load of summer homework is anything other than 'busywork'. Without formal classroom instruction--that is real 'teaching', I fail to see how assigning 2-3 months of homework actually accomplishes much of anything, especially in mathematics classes...or anything that can't be accomplished by the 'refresher' that is a standard part of teaching post-summer vacation. As to the AP argument, isn't the amount of material to be covered the reason why there are classes in Algebra I and Algebra II? Or the English classeS requirement for graduation? Or formal 'summer school' classes? Or magnet schools?