New Schedule, Many Flaws

[Beth Brown]

I do like that high schoolers would get more sleep, and that it is in line with what science says about learning for that age group. Beyond that, I see a ton of issues. 

What percentage of families will need childcare now? I really doubt that even if backed by the district, the community could support, financially, enough childcare opportunities. The need is there, but not everyone has the pay to do it. This would continue to shut out non- LANL employees, or non-higher paid LANL employees, from living in our community. Considering how few childcare options exist, and that there is still massive need, I’m really skeptical. 

The childcare burden will disproportionately fall on women. Women may not be able to re-enter the workforce due to this. Women may have to quit their jobs, because of scarcity of childcare, or inability to pay. We already have problems with moms working only to pay for daycare. Or quite possibly, we’re going to send all these young kids home without supervision. It’s not the 80s anymore. Latchkey kids are not as acceptable as it once was. Is this dramatic sounding? Sure. But it also extremely plausible.  

If we cannot hire bus drivers, where are all these childcare workers going to come from? It can be a stressful job that does not pay well. Where are all these workers going to live? Probably not in our community, because of wealth disparity. I sure as heck wouldn’t want to drive all the way up here to work in childcare, part time. 

What time would the poor orchestra teacher, or other before school activities, have to start in the morning? How late would coaches or teachers involved at the middle and high school level have to stay? 

Kids staying that much later at the middle and high school level is going to reduce the workforce further. Some kids *need* to work. There is a non-zero percentage of HS kids working and contributing to local childcare programs. Those jobs will no longer be available to them. 

I like the idea of HS starting late, in a vacuum. The reality is, our community cannot effectively support it in basic, fundamental ways. This might be fine for larger, less isolated places. But we are not one of those communities.

Beth Brown