Works for California, I suppose. Where I grew up buses were shared between schools so start times had to be staggered between school levels, and because it was

Works for California, I suppose. Where I grew up buses were shared between schools so start times had to be staggered between school levels, and because it was above the 45th Parallel North our days were a lot shorter than the ones in California especially in the winter. So there's only so many practical start times you can have, and somebody's going to be getting up and going to school before sunup or going home during sundown. While letting yawning teenagers get more sleep seems obvious, the lesser evil is having them get up while it's dark out instead of making 10 year olds walk to the bus stop in darkness, or walk home in twilight. Folks would drive their kids to school if they could, my dad did for me and my little brother as much as possible, but in a household where both parents have jobs, it's not a realistic solution, and that was the reality for most people in the district I lived in.