As if today’s kids weren’t already spoiled enough, more and more school districts around the U.S. are pushing back start times for their sleepy teens.
And it’s costing taxpayers millions of dollars in increased costs.
The Seattle school board recently voted to adopt an 8:45 a.m. start time beginning next year for all of its high schools and most of its middle schools, joining 70 districts across the nation who adopted a later start time in recent years on the taxpayer dime.
It’s part of a new movement that claims that if students are better rested, they will perform better academically.
Some have argued that later start times will get in the way of after-school activities like athletics practice. But the largest resistance is based on financial reasons.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, public schools delayed the adoption of later start times for high school students because of transportation issues.
The district found that letting teens sleep in was going to add $8 million in taxpayer-funded busing costs, as schedules for elementary and middle-school students would also have to be adjusted and buses added.
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“It would be much better to put that in the classroom rather than the gas tank,” said Jackie Statum Allen, the district’s assistant director for strategic planning and policy.
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The Associated Press contributed to this article
Sorry I agree with the later starts. It should be 9 or even 10.
Hell, make it any time they want to saunter in.
Sure. Teaching the kids that choosing their own starting time is appropriate after graduation when they get a job…(if they get a job).
They really should be paying the poor little dears for showing up.
I agree. Elementary school children should start at 7:00. They already wake up early. I do not think it is babying teenagers. It’s just that their hormones are kicking in and are more sleepy in the early hours. I know I was. Worry about a job when it comes to that point.
Good luck finding & keeping a decent job with that attitude.
I have always thought that the kids should be going to school later. Good for them.
Yes, it will give them more time to help out with the chores at home..
Nice try, are you going to stay home from your job to make sure they do those chores? Make sure your cattle prod is fully charged up.
That was sarcasm Jim.
Today we have college graduates with educational skills that wouldn’t have graduated them from the 8th grade 30 years ago. The whole baby mama, baby daddy culture of aspiring to get EBT, WIC and Sec. 8 housing while working families struggle isn’t a positive thing. Political correctness and checking off the right box at hiring time is diminishing our progress as a super power.
Agree 100% If you “baby” students they end up babies.
Agree….They do not need Coddling….Many of them need a Swift Kick in the ASS….
What they need is to get off them damn cell phones all night and maybe they could get their lazy ass’s up in the morning. How the hell can they get up when they lay around to 2, 3 in the morning talking nonsense on their phones. Parents should have control of their phones and cut off their service after 10/11 at night !!!
Yep. They’re night owls, and it does no good to try to get them to go to sleep at night. I know, I’ve tried. They complain they can’t sleep, but their bad habits take a while to get out of their systems.
They’re also very inactive. When I was a kid without phones, etc, I spent time running around outside, etc. I found things to do with friends that required me to be active, because that was about all there was, aside from homework. And we were usually asleep by 11ish. Was it hard to get up? Sure it was; nobody wants to go to school unless something interesting was going on. But no one wants to roll out of bed for work, either…but we want that paycheck, LOL.
For some teens all talking on cell phones, texting, or surfing the net are after getting off work at 12:30 am from Burger King. They may get two hours sleep before school. They have to work to help pay household bills and a car note. Don’t you think?
Just let them sleep in the classroom. They will probably learn just as much as if they were awake.
Ha ha! Juanita! This is so true and I have seen it in the upper grades especially. 🙂
You got that right my 11 year old son is smarter than his cousin who graduated from University of Arizona. He also smarter than his high school cousins
I agree. It’s not really ‘lazy’. There is a physiological aspect to it. Toddlers are awake and alert WAY earlier than teens – who are going through huge physical and mental growth. I’m surprised at the ignorance of The Horn News on this. It’s easy to blame ‘lazy’ teens – for everything. This is way off base. And why are more buses needed in the Minnesota case sighted above? Are there going to magically be more students who will ‘appear’ with a later start to the school day? I believe you should have the same numbers of students in the district at 9am as there are a 7am….. Oh – and as to adjusting the bus schedule – DUH!!!
Sounds to me like some parents that don’t work want to sleep in. Do you think their boss will let them sleep in if they educate themselves enough to get e job ? Ridiculous. When I taught I was at school at 6:30 AM as I had labs to set up. Often time students would wonder in early, even though school started at 8AM , to do homework in the peace and
quiet of my room. Get your urchins in bed on time and early starts are fine.
Well said! ! ! A little structure now will pay off when they start to work ………assuming they start to work.
This is one of the dumbest headlines and articles I’ve seen. Each district or charter school will figure out their start and end times and whether these are cost-effective. They will listen to the parents, students and teachers and weigh the evidence. If students aren’t putting forth enough effort, then figure out what will engage them, and make the necessary changes in school staffing and curricula. My particular hobby horse is the increasing irrelevance of the factory model design of the comprehensive high school. But if this 100-yr old design is engaging students and producing wonderful human beings who learn enough to become competent citizens, workers and parents, then keep it. If the kids are bored and can’t wait to get to college or the work world, then schools might wish to change how they deploy their time, talent and technology. Following is a module could serve as a template for redesigning the high school experience:
http://www.educationviews.org/factory-model-school-major-impediment-academic-emotional-growth/).
who is going to take the leadership in the future? Is the future going to have nothing more than a society of stupidities walking the streets mugging and killing each other, living in caves and under bridges because they can’t afford a place to rent, or burnt down cities in our culture …………… while the Asian population controls the known world at that time. America will no longer have any value to the world so other nations will write off our country as a no land. Is this the future of America? I hope things last the way they currently are until my son (who is 25) will pass into spirit world – oh, I hope he doesn’t marry and have kids, unless he marries an Asian and moves to Asia …. this is my gloom opinion of our future if we continue pampering laziness within our society. Pessimistic isn’t it (oh, if you don’t know the meaning of that word just goggle it)
John,
Yours was my fav commentary. Good for you (and your son) that you’ve “taken the red pill” regarding the devolution of ‘modern’ [sic] American/Western cultures and are counseling your son accordingly. TouchĂ©.
– Dean, Atlanta
Great attitude. I agree that our nation is in trouble. However, kids are the future and hope. Well off folks who are too self-absorbed to raise a family area big reason why our nation is in decline. I hope your son has many kids and they vote and help stop the decline of our nation.
If this generation of kids are our future we are in terrible trouble…….
What ever happened to early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise?
He who stays up and hoots with the owls at night, will not soar with the eagles in the morning. When will people finally get it, if we go back to traditional values in this country, EVERYTHING will work itself out. Like the whole concept that if you want something you go out and work for it. If you do not have the money to buy what you want ,then get a better job, or tough luck you just do not get it! Instead we have people who think they are entitled to whatever they want, without working, saving, or paying for it. We have desensitized our youth with internet, TV, and smart phones to the point of almost being useless in society. Just observe a family out to dinner with teenagers, to get my point. They are just there with hands and eyes glued to their smart phones, twittering to their friends how their life sucks because they have to spend time with their family. But these same teenagers feel that whatever their parents have worked hard for is already theirs. All the need for instant gratification has put this country to its knees. Kids need to get their butts up early in high school, it is preparing them for when they join the work force. In my 28 years of working I have yet to find a company who wanted to make sure I got my beauty sleep. The few times that I did have late nighters guess what? I suffered for it! Called School of Hard Knocks!That teaches you a life lesson really quick! So if your going to be dumb you better be tough!
When did all this start the kids getting what they want again.take the phone away from them and then maybe they just might get some sleep at night.I’ve always said,the kids are running the schools.this later start proves it.
Notice she’s black the one’s who have the lowest scores
It’s not “lazy” teens; studies have shown teens’ biological clocks actually run later than young children and adults. Bad title.
School should have the day be the same as a work schedual. Day and swing so we do not get levied for more building projects.
I agree with the above about getting off the cell phones. Better parenting certainly needs to be implemented as well. Parents today want to be friends and not parents. In my day if you needed to be corrected you got a swift kick in the ass if necessary. Most people under the age of 30 today don’t impress me one damn bit; they are a bunch of panty waste.
Current research consistently supports the notion that teenagers require more sleep and that their academic performance depends upon them getting enough. That being said, an increase in behavioral standards and parental investment should help as well.
I disagree. 1. They are tired because they can’t turn off & put down the phones or other items of communication. 2. They need to be held responsible, get a good nights sleep, get up, get to school and help your country become great again, You are our next leaders. ACT like it. 3. CHORES !!, CHORES!!, most kids can’t clean their rooms, wash dishes by hand, due to lack of discipline at home.4. Parents need to be PARENTS and not buddies or friends or we will have more people looking for government hand-outs. Here is an idea, if parents won’t instill discipline maybe two years in the military will, and help them with a profession. Hold them accountable for their actions and STOP babying them.
If we push the start time back, the little darlings will just stay up later.
I agree with many others, let the school set the time for those lazy kids. You are doing them a big injustice to let them have no discipline in their lives. They will grow up worthless to society or themselves, or the work force!!!!!
My parents are from the Appalachian Mountains and they would have loved to have had the opportunity to even go to school like this generation takes for granted. They worked the farms and many dropped out of school because they were basically forced to do so in order to take care of the rest of the family. They would have risen at 5 am and would have went to school if they had a chance. I think we have all become spoiled in America.
Back then, they were adults in their teens and expected to be. That is not a great way to grow up and it was a hard life but, this is a bit extreme because it does not mirror the real world and that is what we should be doing as parents; preparing our children for the real world so they are not shocked or suicidal when things seem too difficult. It is just an opinion but, I believe that pampering them is not good for them. Note the young teen that stated he was too rich to go to jail and that by being so rich his judgment was different than other teens his age. Really? Maybe so but, the crime should still stand rich or poor, pampered or not. It is not an excuse.
Being a teen is not an excuse not to be on time. I served in the military with 17 year olds who had to be at muster and on duty at 4 am or 5 am. If you miss muster or are UA (unauthorized absence), you are held strictly accountable. Yes, that is the military and these are civilian young teens we are talking about but, at 17 these young men and women were depended upon to protect our country. No babies there or you are out.
Just something to consider and to each their own opinion and way they as parents choose to rear their own children.
I personally home schooled my children and did not allow them to sleep in. They were as much accountable for completing their education as I was for ensuring they were properly educated. Two of three of them have completed their degrees and are working on their graduate degrees while the youngest is finishing his Bachelor’s. They do not miss work and they are on time completing what they are given to complete. They have lots of friends but, hang out with them at times it does not interfere with their goals, duties or sleep for the next day.
God Bless all of these children and I am sure later hours will work as long as responsibility is taught no matter what time they are to be at school.
I just cannot figure out why it would cost more money and more buses would be needed. If it is a later start time, how would that impact money? They would run the same bus route and pick up the same children, right? I’m confused. 🙂