| Steve Cobble is a long time progressive organizer, and a good friend for 20+ years now. He sent me this today, and I wanted to post the idea immediately because time is fast running out to get this done. I hope folks will contact their school boards with this idea right away.
Over the past year or so, bloggers like Chris & Matt have taken the lead on several projects that required mass participation from online progressive readers--the Google bombs, the effort to get safe House & Senate members to donate to help challengers, the push to help Donna Edwards win her seat.
Here's an idea that OpenLeft.com could lead on that would help everyone in the fall, and perhaps for years to come--we could make a quick push to contact local public school officials in the coming days, to try to register as many high school seniors as possible before they graduate next month.
In a month or so, about 3 million public high school seniors all across the country will graduate. Since many of them do not go on to college, it seems to me that it makes basic sense to try to get the public school systems, the teachers unions, the mayor/city council political infrastructure, and all local activists quickly activated to try to register as many of these seniors as possible between now and graduation day. This seems particularly sensible in urban areas, where minority students are prevalent.
(We should also, of course, be thinking about how to get ready for the fall opening of classes in September, to catch the "rising seniors", still before election day.)
No matter what city or state you live in, from Boise to Boston to Birmingham, public high school seniors are more diverse than their surrounding communities, and likely to be potentially progressive voters. The obvious excitement and enthusiasm that young people have shown for participating in this primary season is a very hopeful sign, and one that we should act quickly to build upon.
Given the short time left before graduation, what could supportive activists do to get the ball rolling for quick public high school registration?
*You could call their local Superintendent of the public schools, and/or their local school board members, and ask them to take on this program quickly, before school is out.
*You could call/email their Mayor/City Council member/County Commissioner, and ask them to make some calls to help get this done.
*You could talk to the local AFT or NEA head--these union leaders should quickly grasp the usefulness of these new voter registrations, and with teachers' union members in public school districts across the country, they could help move such an effort quickly.
*You could contact local voter registration groups like Project Vote, to party leaders, and student organizations about pushing this idea.
*You could also raise the idea with other online blogs, with progressive groups with mass memberships, and especially with local political leaders, especially those in areas with large school systems, to help convince school officials that registering public high school seniors is a civic project worth doing this year. |
