Teens in Berkeley, Oakland are the first to vote in school board elections

As the upcoming presidential election fills voters’ minds, a new demographic will be casting their ballots for the first time this November. The cities of Berkeley and Oakland announced in August that voters ages 16 to 17 are now eligible to vote on local school boards.

In 2016, Berkeley voters approved Measure Y by just over 70% of the vote. in Auckland, Measure QQ — which points to similar youth voting conditions as its Berkeley counterpart — was approved in 2020 with 68% of the vote.

Years after the approval, continued advocacy by organizations like Oakland Kids First helped push the Alameda County Registrar of Voters to complete the registration system Voters are 16 and 17 years old.

At the Oct. 22 school board candidate forum hosted by Fremont High School and hosted by Oakland Youth Votestudents, teachers, administrators, organizers and school board candidates from the Oakland Unified School District gathered to register voters and learn more about the candidates running for local school board races.

Nearly all of the school board candidates from Districts 1, 3, 5 and 7 were in attendance, and each was given the opportunity to introduce themselves and discuss their priorities and platforms in a time-limited format moderated by Fremont High School students.

After the student moderators and administrators introduced and explained registration, voting, and the school board, the moderators emphasized the importance of voting in order for student voices to be heard. They pointed to the success of community organizations such as the Oakland Youth Commission and Californians for Justice.

Emily Hamill/EdSource

“Your voice has the power to bring us closer to your vision and make your dream a reality,” said the student moderator. “It makes history, but it was only possible because we fought for the last five years. We’ve earned it — it’s a right.”

Forum speakers highlighted what they believe are the most important issues facing Oakland students — access to health and wellness, community schools and basic life skills — all highlighted by more than 1,400 student survey forms collected from across the county.

The rest of the forum consisted of student moderators who asked candidates questions about how they plan to represent student concerns about equitable resource allocation, holistic mental health and wellness reviews, school safety and the budget deficit.

Oakland Tech senior Ariana Astorga Vega and sophomore Amina Tongun, both members of the All-City Council, or ACC, attended the forum and emphasized the importance of students exercising their newfound voting rights, which are limited to the Oakland Unified School District (the OUSD ACC board consists of 11 peer-selected seniors representing student interests at OUSD.

“Although I cannot vote yet because I am not yet 16 years old, I am here as part of ACC to support local youth voting,” Tongun said. “I think it’s really special because we’re voting as young people and our voices are being heard. That’s one of the main reasons I joined ACC, because I really believe in advocating for young people and helping their voices be heard.”

Vega echoed Tongun’s sentiments about the new voting rights and her gratitude for the opportunity to be “part of this change.”

They also participated in ACC’s efforts to encourage young people to vote, including optimizing social media posts about it and putting up flyers that read “Breaking news: 16-17-year-olds can now vote!” in schools of the district.

Although they face obstacles, such as student disinterest because they don’t know how to vote and the consequences, Vega and Tongun hope their community’s continued efforts to raise awareness and education will motivate their peers to take action.

Maya Rapier, an organizer with Oakland Kids First, who also attended the forum, was committed to the cause. By helping distribute voter registration forms, spreading the word about the forum and even implementing a new voting program in OUSD schools, Rapier said the organization has helped the district register more than 1,000 student voters.

“I truly feel that Oakland is a beautiful place with such a wonderful community of constituents who deserve so much, but there is a history of underserved and under-resourced students,” Rapier said. “Students know their own experiences best, so it’s really important for them to be in schools in real time, see a problem, bring it to a representative, and know that they have the right to bring it to their attention. »

Rapier added, “I’m a former OUSD student and I’m really inspired by the students here and the work they do.”

Fremont High School Principal Nidia Baez echoed those sentiments, saying her students “feel a responsibility” to represent families and community members who don’t have the right to vote. She has worked to help “remove (eg, barriers to) the fear factor” by working with local coalitions to organize class presentations, luncheons and events such as candidate forums.

At Berkeley High School (BHS), students, with the help of faculty, spearheaded youth voter registration and education. On October 8, students from the BHS Civic Leadership Club hosted a school board candidate forum with the support of John Villavicencio, director of student activities. The students invited the candidates to speak at the high school and gave the students time to ask questions.

Villavicencio added that other BHS student organizations have led efforts to encourage students to register to vote and have done the legwork by delivering mail-in voter registration forms to classrooms. He also noted the efforts of Josh Daniels, a former member of the Oakland and Berkeley Unified School Districts, who has organized a weekly Zoom call between student leaders, student organizations and nonprofits supporting the youth vote to discuss efforts in their respective school districts. .

During one weekly meeting, Oakland Youth Vote shared a curriculum created by school members detailing what the school board does, introducing the OUSD school board, emphasizing the importance of youth voting, and helping register students to vote.

After hearing about the curriculum created by the Oakland Youth Vote, Villavicencio encouraged Berkeley to create something similar. BHS teacher librarian Allison Bogie offered to help and created an abbreviated two-day curriculum tailored to Berkeley Unified. After review by the superintendent’s office, student leaders, teachers, and administrators, the curriculum was released to teachers to use in their classrooms.

“I wanted to make sure that any teachers who wanted a tool to talk about youth voting, registering kids and the history of that, had something that was really easy to use,” Bogie said. “I think it’s important for kids to vote, and I want to support teachers, and that’s part of my role as a librarian.”

According to Villavicencio, several hurdles had to be overcome to convince students to sign up and understand why this opportunity is so special. Some students didn’t know their Social Security numbers, making the registration process difficult, while others had never heard of the school board or didn’t know what it did, making it difficult to educate students about the impact of their vote.

Villavicencio said they could “easily hit 1,000 pre-registrations” out of about 1,800 potential BHS students who could register to vote. As of October 22, 491 students were registered, which, he said, was “somewhat disappointing.”

“(Some students) are very passionate about activism as well as being involved in the community,” Villavicencio said, but the overall sentiment is “warm.” Bogie said she doesn’t think students take it negatively, but has noticed a lot of students who are also “not very interested.”

Looking forward, Bogie hopes to see “sustained student momentum” for the upcoming elections.

“It’s commendable what’s being done,” Villavicencio said. “And it’s crazy to say that much more can be done.”

Emily Hamill is a third-year student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying comparative literature and media studies, and is also pursuing a minor in journalism. Kelsey Lee is a sophomore at UC Berkeley majoring in history and sociology. Both are members of EdSource California Student Corps of Journalism.

Member of the California Student Corps of Journalism Joe Moonstudent at UC Berkeley, who studies political economy, gender and women’s studies, and Korean, contributed to this story.