As previously reported, there is a bill in the State Legislature about 14-year-olds being able to vote in school board elections. KUOW's The Conversation will be featuring a discussion with Senator Scott White, who is sponsoring the bill, as well as two students from Garfield High School.
This on KUOW 94.9 FM at noon.
4 comments:
Are school board elections exempt from state voter requirements? Especially the 18-year-old part?
I realize this is just a stunt, but it's a pretty annoying one when the state education system has so many serious issues right now.
As I recall "Director" Carr asked
one child, (her own) about
Discovery Math and entered the
child's opinion into the court
record to give the impression the
"Director" performed due diligence.
If the child of the "Director" is
able to influence a district wide
decision I applaud the notion
that students should vote for
their school board representative.
This might be fun and all, but I agree with John that it's just a stunt. State voter requirements include being 18 years of age or older, and that's for good reason. Most teens don't have the wherewithal to make those kinds of decisions. Sure, there are exceptions, but few and far between.
Hope they're not spending a lot of time on this when there are really huge issues (like budget!) to deal with.
I believe the truly larger issue here is that perhaps 18 isn't the right age for the cutoff between voters and non-voters. 15 year olds -for example- are subject to school board rulings that can affect their ability to get into colleges (colleges that are increasingly accepting 15, 16 and 17 yr old freshmen students), as well as treated as adults in regards to felonies, driving laws and (most importantly to those who revere the nation's founders) fully subject to state and federal taxes on income they make.
There will always be 'budget issues' to distract us from civic rights: Real democratic Representation IS what these young citizens deserve, and when their parents/elected leaders/school boards neglect to represent them with fairness and responsibility, they SHOULD petition the government with grievances (and potential solutions).
Take the 'school board election' focus out of the argument, and this could be a stirring child-advocacy & solid voter rights issue with broader scope effect and appeal.
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