Argumentative Essay Example: Schools Should Not Have a Later Start Time

To begin, schools should not have a later start time because it negatively impacts low-income families. With parents working normal hours, kids will have to come home to an empty house and spend up to four hours without supervision. “Under new start times, and therefore earlier end times, these kids will be spending up to four hours home alone every day” (Source #5). This evidence confirms that parents will either have to take off work or pay for after-school care if they want their kid(s) to be supervised, and they may not be able to pay for after-school care or they may need every hour of work they can get. Source #5 also states, “After school care is for financially advanced families... After school, care from 3:25 pm to 6:00 pm is more than $700 per month.” This demonstrates that some families may not be able to pay the expenses of after-school care or may not be able to get home before their kid comes home from school, and paying for after-school care or taking time off work may make them struggle financially more than they are already. These facts make it obvious that schools should maintain the same start time because it’s not suitable for financially struggling families and young kids.                                                                                                                  

Secondly, starting school at a later time is very expensive. Starting school later for the high school kids will make younger kids in middle and elementary school have to get up early. It also means rearranging bus routes and having younger kids outside in the dark waiting for the bus. Evidence from Source #4 states, “Fairfax County is spending $5 million to push back school start times by nearly an hour this school year, from 7:20 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. Middle school students, however, start at 7:30 a.m. which is about 10 to 20 minutes earlier than last year.” This evidence proves that pushing back school start times is not fair to middle schoolers and may make them sleep-deprived, also it may drain the school of money for extra school supplies for students or other things they may need. “The Anne Arundel board wants to have later start times for next year. The board allocated $602,000 in the fiscal year 2016 budget to delay school start time by fall of 2016.” (Source #4). This evidence shows how expensive it can be to push back school start times and since school gets money from property taxes when they spend that much money they might be in need of more, this might cause property taxes to raise in a specific area. Having schools adjust to a new start time is clearly the wrong choice. It is too expensive and not everyone would benefit from it.

Others argue that schools should have a later start time because teens need sleep, and they think that everyone is getting more sleep when in reality not everyone is. Any teens involved in school sporting activities won’t be getting more sleep and their grades may drop lower, here’s why. School sporting activities will, by the later start time therefore later end time, will be pushed back by an hour or so, leaving teens involved in those activities less time for homework This may keep them up late trying to study for a test or catch up on homework while their brains are tired and not fully processing things, they are more likely to get a bad grade on whatever their working on, causing their grades to slowly drop. These teens are getting the same amount of sleep they did the year before. Source #4 states, “The later start time pushes back his sports schedule, which means he has less time to do homework after school. So he stays up later and doesn’t sleep more than he did last year, he said.” This evidence brings in the point of view of a junior at McLean High School, Torin Dunn. Like Torin, many other people at his school that is involved in sporting events are not getting any more sleep, but their grades may have dropped from doing their homework late at night when they are tired and their brains are starting to shut off. More evidence states, “While requests can be made changing the start times of contests is not always possible” (Source #6). This evidence shows that sporting events or competitions outside of school may start before the later end time, and while early dismissal is possible, that students, or students, will have to catch up in that class later and they will be missing class time. Also, if they are involved in multiple sporting events or competitions throughout the year, they may be missing the same class over again, causing them to be more lost in that particular class, which may cause their grade to drop in that class.