The tradition of teenagers holding summer jobs clashed with the newer ideal of high school students taking college classes in a heated debate Wednesday over when public schools should begin each year.

State legislators are considering rewriting a recent law that prohibits most schools from starting before Aug. 25, saying the restriction puts parents, students and schools in a bind. Parents and teachers who want local school boards to again have control over school calendars point to Jennifer Schafer of Cary as an example of how the law hurts students.

"The law has adversely affected my education," Schafer, a Cary High School junior, said at a public hearing Wednesday. Taking final exams after winter break, at the same time that she started a comparative political science class at N.C. State University, added to her workload, she said. The school schedule gives her less time to prepare for Advanced Placement tests, which she thinks hurt her scores last year.

"It's a month you don't get to study," she said.

But parents and business owners who fought in 2004 to have schools start in late August said the extra weeks off are good for the economy and for families who want late summer vacations.

Some parents said they were tired of "calendar creep," with starting dates steadily being set back to the first and second weeks of August. The tourism industry pushed hard to have schools open in late August, and representatives say the change has helped the economy.

Tourism is booming, said Bob Rippy of Wilmington, a water park owner. He said the new law deserves some of the credit.

"Tourism had the biggest year it has ever had in this state," he said. "If you do the math, it's better than the lottery."

Feelings about the new law are still raw. Two people at the public hearing got into a shouting match over its merits.

The House Education Committee, which held the public hearing, could vote on the proposal as soon as today.

Connie Wilson, a lobbyist for the N.C. Travel Industry Association, rebutted claims that the new law was hurting students, pointing to increased enrollment of high school students in community college courses.

"Students are getting jobs where they can save for college, cars, whatever they want, and families have the time they need," she said.

Wilson, who as a Charlotte legislator three years ago worked to pass the law, said the travel industry association is working on a study of the law's impact on occupancy tax collections and other tourism spending.

A study prepared for the state Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development showed mixed results. Hotel occupancy declined in coastal and mountain counties in August 2005, the first year of the later start date. Last August, occupancy rose in mountain counties but fell in coastal counties.

Wilson said the numbers accounted only for large hotel chains and excluded smaller companies that offered cottage rentals.

"It is not a good reflection of what is occurring in the tourism economy," she said.

When it was first debated in 2004, the law divided teachers and school boards, coastal counties and mountain counties, parents who wanted time for family vacations and parents who worried about their children's time to study. Associations representing school boards and administrators want to go back to the way things were.

Support from the N.C. Association of Educators helped get the law passed, and Eddie Davis, the group's president, said it is too soon to change it.

State Superintendent June Atkinson disagreed. Some districts must spend more for buses, and school boards and parents contend with mismatched elementary and high school schedules, said Atkinson, arguing that legislators should let school systems pick opening day.

Rep. Larry Bell, a Clinton Democrat and former school superintendent, said the proposed change was a way to return control to local districts.

"We've taken away local control," said Bell, a main proponent of rewriting the law. "I've not seen any reason why we should start on Aug. 25."