With the cold weather we’ve experienced this season, school delays are inevitable. These delays are costly in terms of lost productivity both for the students and their parents who often have to stay at home until the schools open or pay for additional child care. But it seems that Hoosiers are experiencing more of these delays than those in other parts of the country.
A recent letter to the editor in the Herald-Times noted that even though New York City got 12 inches of snow one night, their schools were able to open the following day. If they could do it, why couldn’t we? Quoting: “Surely, we Hoosiers have as much get-up-and-go as any New Yorkers.”
The problem for Indiana isn’t lack of get-up-and-go, as much as lack of sunlight, and highlights a problem that Indiana has had for decades. Geographically, all of Indiana falls well within the borders of the Central Time Zone, but since most of Indiana observes Eastern Time, we are at a disadvantage when compared to other states that are in their correct time zones.
In New York, the sun rises about an hour before it does in Indiana. That extra hour of sunlight not only raises the air temperature, but is essential for road de-icing since many de-icing components require sunlight to work. Illinois provides another example.
As reported by the Central Time Coalition, Illinois had 19 school delays in the 2012–2013 academic year compared to Indiana’s 1,172. An extra hour of sunlight would reduce Indiana’s excessive numbers of 2-hour delays by one hour and could eliminate them altogether.
The Central Time Coalition is a grassroots organization that has been lobbying for Indiana to switch to its geographically correct time zone since 2009. For more information, visit hoosiersforcentraltime.com.
