Labor Day is a national holiday in the United States, observed every year on the first Monday in September since Congress declared the holiday in 1894. For the past sixty-odd years, Labor Day has marked the last day of summer break for public schools and as such has prompted a tradition of parties, barbecues and last-minute vacations on the three-day "Labor Day weekend". However, national education reform in recent years - particularly the No Child Left Behind act - has put pressure on public schools from pre-school through universities to perform well on standardized tests or risk losing government...