Stay On Daylight Savings Time?

[1953]

School shouldn't start later, because it would inconvenience family life. A little inefficiency is fine.

[Bigdd]

School shouldn't start later, because it would inconvenience family life. A little inefficiency is fine.

It's actually a lot of inefficiency. Especially for teens.

Too early a start time not only hurts their learning, makes them restless in class and more.

And what's the difference between children coming home at 4:30 v.s. 3?

I look at my neighbor's children [[5 & 7) standing out in the cold and near dark at 7:20 am [[on the occasion I'm even awake then) and wonder "why"?

I know they were up at 6:15. What are they in the Army? They should be asleep 'till 8. And when they're a teen,.. more like 9.

That same family has younger children that catch a different bus at 8:30.

I think they should move the younger ones up from 8:30 to 8,.. and move the older students from 7:30 to 9. On average it's only a 1/2 hour change.

And they'd learn easier,... with less outbursts in class, and more attention span,.. perhaps they could come home at the same time?

[Zacha341]

I agree. Some children are sleep deprived, which affects them far more than adults [[not that the kids - especially teens - would ever admit that). Perhaps an 8:30 AM start will be tried.

School SHOULD start later.

The evidence is conclusive that children don't learn nearly as well when they're woken up at 6:30 as they do if woken up at 8. School for first grade through 8th grade should be moved 1-2 hours later....

[mkhopper]

I've been asking [[into the air) for years why we don't just put the entire country on DST and then leave it there. Makes for longer evenings and does away with the need to switch clocks around.

And we are almost there anyway when you look at it. With the latest changes in DST start/end dates, we're only on standard time barely 4.5 months out of the year.

If people are really concerned about school start times, I'm sure many logistical issues might need to be hammered out if school were to start later in the day, but it's quite doable.

[Ray1936]

Nice thing about being retired is you don't really give a care about what time it is. And every day is Saturday.

[Scottathew]

Sun is nearly always up before 5 a.m. here in Las Vegas. Since Michigan is on the western edge of the time zone, and Nevada is on the eastern edge, there's pretty much a one hour difference in "sun time v. civil time". On the other hand, even on the longest summer day, the sun sets in Las Vegas at 8:01 p.m. And due to the Spring Mountains on the west, the sun actually disappears a half hour before that in much of the valley.

Don't mind me. I just like to ramble on and on sometimes.

In June there's a good period of time where the sun sets after 9pm. I love the late sunset.

[yupislyr]

I'm all for Michigan adopting DST all year long.

Hopefully Ontario would be coerced into tagging along.

[Jimaz]

Today I heard on the radio that the Michigan legislature is again considering the Daylight Savings Time issue. I think they were referring to House Bill 4052 [[2021).

HOUSE BILL NO. 4052

January 28, 2021, Introduced by Rep. Hoitenga and referred to the Committee on Commerce and Tourism.

A bill to provide for the official time followed in this state; and to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state agencies and officials.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

Sec. 1. [[1) If the United States Congress amends 15 USC 260a to authorize states to observe daylight saving time year-round, it is the intent of the legislature that daylight saving time shall be the year-round standard time of this state and all of its political subdivisions in that part of this state that is in the Eastern Standard Time zone and in that part of this state that is in the Central Standard Time zone.
[[2) It is the intent of the legislature that the time change described in subsection [[1) take effect only if all of the following states observe daylight saving time year-round:
[[a) Wisconsin.
[[b) Illinois.
[[c) Indiana.
[[d) Ohio.
[[e) Pennsylvania.
Enacting section 1. This act takes effect 90 days after the date it is enacted into law.

Personally, I find adjusting clocks twice a year an unnecessary nuisance but I could be convinced otherwise.

[bartocktoo]

Today I heard on the radio that the Michigan legislature is again considering the Daylight Savings Time issue. I think they were referring to House Bill 4052 [[2021).

Personally, I find adjusting clocks twice a year an unnecessary nuisance but I could be convinced otherwise.

On the list of things that are government or law-driven it is far down my list of nuisances, and as northerners I think most probably prefer the longer evenings when it is warmer.

I find the idea of starting school later far more interesting, potentially impactful, and perhaps much better for everyone.

[Lowell]

I've never understood why the winter EST span is unbalanced. For instance, Daylight Savings Time [DST] ended on Sunday, November 1, 2:00 am [50 days before winter solstice equinox] and restarts on Sunday, March 14, 2:00 am [83 days after winter solstice].

So I'm saying why not at least restart DST 50 days after solstice or Feb. 9? Why isn't the daylight saved considered as valuable after Feb. ? Never understood that one. How about you all?

[Atticus]

I've never understood why the winter EST span is unbalanced. For instance, Daylight Savings Time [DST] ended on Sunday, November 1, 2:00 am [50 days before winter solstice equinox] and restarts on Sunday, March 14, 2:00 am [83 days after winter solstice].

So I'm saying why not at least restart DST 50 days after solstice or Feb. 9? Why isn't the daylight saved considered as valuable after Feb. ? Never understood that one. How about you all?

IDK. Maybe it has to do with maintaining more consistency with the sunrise time?

For instance, while the solstice is Dec 21, the date of the latest Sunrise is actually January 4 [[earliest Sunset is actually earlier in December).

Anyway, if latest sunset date is used [[Jan 4), than the current plan is closer to equal with DST ending about two months before, and resuming two months after, January 4th.

[Jimaz]

I've never understood why the winter EST span is unbalanced. For instance, Daylight Savings Time [DST] ended on Sunday, November 1, 2:00 am [50 days before winter solstice equinox] and restarts on Sunday, March 14, 2:00 am [83 days after winter solstice].

So I'm saying why not at least restart DST 50 days after solstice or Feb. 9? Why isn't the daylight saved considered as valuable after Feb. ? Never understood that one. How about you all?

Damned good question.

Ideally, you'd want to "spring ahead" on the vernal equinox [[about March 21) and "fall back" on the autumnal equinox [[about September 23). But in practice, it's done on Sundays to minimize disruption and Sundays fall on different dates from year to year. So, taking the Sunday constraint into account, you'd want the change to be on a Sunday between [[inclusive) March 18 - March 24 or Sept 20 - Sept 26.

That would make perfect sense until ... legislature.

Daylight saving time in the United States

From all that I concluded that the dates were set based more on sales figures than the cosmos. LOL!

The United States Chamber of Commerce has praised the extension of daylight saving under the 2005 law, which increased the amount of shopping and commerce from after work in evenings. In the golf industry, the group has noted exceptional increase in revenue of "$200 million in additional sales of golf clubs and greens fees". The extension of daylight saving has also had a notable impact on Halloween and candy sales.

[bust]

YES, and YES we should keep the clocks ahead instead of the reverse.

I have no data to support it, but my intuition and personal experience suggests most people would get more sun that way.

The only downside I see is getting out of sync with the rest of the country. And I like we're in sync with the East coast.

The ideal solution: Our whole nation should enact this policy. I'm with you mkhopper.

Side note: It's absurd kids start school earlier than most adults start work, and end it so many hours before parents come home. Every working parent I know.

It also makes no sense to stop school for summer harvest anymore -- talk about making it hard for parents. But kids do need a break. Maybe not so long. And during that break there should be optional summer programs, for a reasonable fee, beyond the ones sometimes offered for kids who fell behind the previous year.

[Lowell]

It also makes no sense to stop school for summer harvest anymore -- talk about making it hard for parents. But kids do need a break. Maybe not so long. And during that break there should be optional summer programs, for a reasonable fee, beyond the ones sometimes offered for kids who fell behind the previous year.

Agree. In my Peace Corps service, where I taught high school technical studies in Swaziland, school was year-round. There was 13 weeks of classes followed by four weeks break, five for the Christmas - New Year span. Students didn't lose momentum with their studies and instead of the long slog of the school year, the idea that the next break was only 13 weeks away was uplifting for students and teachers alike.

We're probably too set with the summer off tradition and many businesses, particularly tourism, would likely create obstacles too large to overcome such a transition.

[Gistok]

We're probably too set with the summer off tradition and many businesses, particularly tourism, would likely create obstacles too large to overcome such a transition.

Yes... which explains the state law forbidding a school day on the Friday before Labor Day.

[Jimaz]

We're probably too set with the summer off tradition....

They take even more time off in Europe but hey, different cultures.

Using Summer vacation days to compensate for lost Covid19 days would have been a simple solution but I never heard anyone suggest that.

I never understood why there's so much hand wringing over snow days. Just use a few Summer vacation days to compensate.