Letters to the Editor: Yes, young people care. Here’s how to make them vote too
It is so refreshing to see an article that acknowledges the young people as the primary victims of the state’s education policies. When state and city educators and administrators ignore the interests of voters the worst that can happen is that young people will not vote.
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I was a young teacher in my early 20s when many of the public education reformers were trying to find middle ground with the teachers unions. I remember that day vividly — because I was at it too — when I joined a small group of reformers when they sat in a circle on a bus and talked about how they had come to their conclusions. When each person finished, a young person was asked to stand up and speak. We were trying to find middle ground with the teachers unions.
After everyone had spoken, a young male speaker rose, and said something to the effect of “I’m not a teacher, I’m not a student; I’m just a voter like you.” He was a perfect example of why it’s important for people to vote. With the new educational reformers, we are at a point where the public education system is in trouble. We are losing our young people. And if we let the education system fail, it’ll cost us so much more in the future.
We are losing our young people to the other side. And the problem is not the education system; it’s the educational reformers trying to keep the education system from failing and from allowing the other side to succeed.
Our young people in our schools are not being listened to. When the education reformers want to make a dramatic change in a child’s education, they want the change in the classrooms and not in our homes and our public schools. Unfortunately, the older generation will not turn around and say to the younger people, “Oh, that’s what you do. I’m so glad my children are not learning anything.” And that’s why they keep trying to keep us from having a voice in our public schools, and from having the opportunity to vote in our public schools.
I am a young person who lives in a city where there are people who want