The proposed bell schedules for the 2017-2018 school year is a complete hindrance to the learning environment, and hosts little to no benefit for students.

Hillsborough County has proposed that high school begin at 7:15 a.m. and end at 2 p.m. this upcoming school year to prevent tardy buses, as stated by Superintendent Jeff Eakins.

Such a start time is too early for high school students who are already lacking sleep due to large amounts of homework and commitment to extracurricular activities. Especially in regards to the fact that already only 15 percent of high school receive an adequate amount of sleep, according to sleepfoundation.org.

The earlier end time does not do much to compensate as it is probable that athletic groups will just use the extra hour as more practice time. Also, an earlier finish to the day does nothing to compensate for the fact that a high schoolers brain is not at capacity to learn at the early time of 7:15 a.m.

In addition, the updated bell schedule takes a period, and consequently an elective, away from the day. In terms of legal education standards the removal is valid, but is more importantly detrimental to the amount of instruction time a student receives.

It is obvious that the sound of the new schedule could be appealing with the shorter day being more conducive to a work schedule for example. However, the bigger picture that high schoolers are in school too early and elementary school students will be spending too long of a day in class, triumphs the few benefits found in the tentative schedule of 2017-2018.

The most insulting part of the new initiative is the fact that Eakins, joined by other school board members, have established that the new schedule is meant to benefit bus riders and specifically elementary education. But in reality the new proposal is being pushed to save the county over two million dollars in having to hire less bus drivers, fueling less buses and not having to maintain older buses. Which is an inarguably deceitful measure by Hillsborough County.

However, the school board is open to receiving commentary on the proposed schedule and it is up to the students that will be affected by this schedule to speak out against it as it poses an obvious threat to the quality of education.