What Time Should School Start? State of Illinois Wants Control

Control can be a difficult thing to obtain. My wife says that control is just an illusion. Ultimately control, or the pursuit of it can be maddening, especially in an area that affects so many. The state of Illinois is considering grabbing the overthruster though and dictating when high school should begin each day across the state.

Currently each school district has the autonomy to schedule each school day to begin at a time that it sees fit. HB2951 heads into the Education Policy committee today to be debated. The bill stems from the successful application of a later start time for high school students in Libertyville, Illinois. Those students have seen positive results of starting the school day at 8:45a, allowing for extra sleep.

State Representative Laura Faver-Dias has sponsored the bill to compel all high schools in the state to be uniform. The discussion in committee hopefully includes the reality that each school district is unique. More rural school districts may have different needs than suburban schools like Libertyville, or urban school districts.

The positive results that Libertyville has experienced for their students is tremendous. Shouldn’t that sample be weighed by other individual school districts if it’s to be applied? Treating every district alike tends to ignore the realities of each of those districts. Could this work for other districts? Certainly. Would it work for all?

Get our free mobile app

Then you have to weigh how the teacher’s unions would react. Is high school start time already built into district contracts? It would be on brand that the teachers unions in Illinois will want to have a say about this. It’s early in the process, but control can be a tricky thing.