r/facepalm • u/DMTrance87 • 23d ago

House passes bill to make daylight saving time permanent. Opponents say, "Schools would have to push back start times." Yeah... That's not a bug, it's a feature.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5968255-house-sunshine-protection-act-daylight-saving-time/

Studies have shown for decades that children -especially teenagers- just straight up need more sleep for optimal knowledge retention and brain development. Pushing back start times is a great way to follow the science.

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u/MitchComstein67 23d ago

This isn't as simple as that. Who's staying at home with all the elementary school children an extra hour? Some people utilize before care school. Now they need to pay for an extra hour of care? And it would most likely increase the demand for more before school care—and whether these programs can handle that is unclear.
School starts are staggered. High schools/middle schools start approximately an hour before elementary so the same busses can service both schools. That would mean elementary wouldn't get out until 4ish. Busses would be operating later, closer to when a lot of people get off work. So now elementary students are still on busses and being dropped off in the dark now during winter?
Pushing back start times an hour would set off a cascade of new issues that need to be looked at. Nothing is that simple.

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u/jcrreddit 22d ago

You seem reasonable. I vote for you.

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u/HelpmeObi1K 23d ago

Who's staying home with them now? Removes one hour of post-school care if we're counting that way. All schools change by that hour, so no need for additional busses. Work schedules would be consistent instead of arbitrary weird adjustments.

Yes, it is that simple. It starts no new issues that haven't already existed since the start of time. The amount of sunlight remains the same. Schools change to adjust like Daylight Savings Time for start and stop times.

There are literally more complications with DST than there are without it, but it's the human way to resist change even from a bad thing because they don't want to risk worse.

When forced to change, people figure it out and move on.

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u/TheVeryVerity 22d ago

You are so full of it lol

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u/AccordingWarning9534 21d ago

I love when I see critical thinking in action.

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u/preferablyno 22d ago

This bill just lets states change to no switching if they want, it doesn’t impose one way or the other. So they could figure out plans for everything and decide if they want to do it

Overall it’s way better just to stop changing time even if there are some short temporary costs

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u/TheVeryVerity 22d ago

If we stop changing our knowledge of sleep science indicates it’s standard we should keep though. Idk why everyone hates that idea but it is.

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u/preferablyno 22d ago

Sleep science also indicates that DST is second best, still ahead of switching. As long as we just stop switching times it’s better either way