LETTER: A matter of parental responsibility

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately about whether start times for schools should be moved up because teachers notice students coming to school on the current schedule seem sleepy in class. But the solution is not to change the start times, causing difficulties for parents who both work and drive their children to school. The solution must recognize that sleepy students are a responsibility of the parents.

Parents must ensure that their children get to sleep at a proper time so that they get the necessary seven or eight hours of rest before coming to school. If this means turning off the TV or the video games, so be it. Demanding that taxpayers support “free breakfasts,” changing school start times and other “remedies” for situations are not the proper way to make sure that students can study and learn. Parents are responsible for these things.

We must ensure that young people are properly educated. They are the future of this country. Without a proper education, they will be much easier for vested interests to manipulate to accomplish the goals for the few and not the goals of the citizens. And that could ruin this country.