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Later School Start Times Spark Debate In California

The California legislature is considering a bill which would require all middle and high schools to open at 8:30 a.m. or later by 2020. Pictured: An unidentified boy walks outside Everett Middle School in San Francisco in 2015. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
The California legislature is considering a bill which would require all middle and high schools to open at 8:30 a.m. or later by 2020. Pictured: An unidentified boy walks outside Everett Middle School in San Francisco in 2015. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

In a few weeks, teenagers will stumble bleary eyed and yawning into middle and high schools to beat that early morning bell. But in California, that could change by 2020. That’s if the state legislature passes a bill next month which would require all middle and high schools to open at 8:30 a.m. or later.

Here & Now‘s Robin Young talks with California State Sen. Anthony Portantino (@Portantino), a Democrat representing the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley areas, who proposed the bill, and with Nancy Chaires Espinoza, a legislative advocate for the California School Boards Association, which opposes it.

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