Changing school start times

The "Speak Out" question in the most recent issue of the American Teacher, a publication created by the American Federation of Teachers, focuses on start times for schools across the country; in particular, should they be pushed back to accommodate the different sleeping schedules of teenagers or should we maintain the status quo due to all the potential issues that might crop up with the shift?

These two sides have been butting heads for years now with research from people like the National Sleep Foundation on one side and the critics on the other pointing out the detrimental effects to non-school aged society. The usual complaints regarding this time change involve the following:

• Rush hour: there would be more traffic congestion as all students would be attempting to go to school at the same time people are going to work.
• Extracurricular activities: it would be difficult to run these programs as students who need to commute long distances would be going home when it was dark outside.

On the other side, there are scores of articles describing the potential benefits of later start times in schools. Minneapolis, Minnesota piloted this idea with two school districts and found improvement in many categories with regards to their student population. As a nation we should really think deeper on what we care about: the externalities to traffic congestion or the future of our students? I vote the latter.