It really comes down to that gap in education. We have students coming from all kinds of school systems. I was a full-time student. On top of that, my school is heavily dependent on financial aid, and that includes work study. Freshman year, tuition was a significant expense for me and my family, so I wanted to use as much of that work study money as possible to defer those payments.
That was my No. But not having a car made it even harder to try and get home. That was definitely a hurdle.
My priority at the time was my school and my work. I think not all, but many school systems are failing to connect the importance of civic engagement with our daily lives. For a lot of young people who are getting ready to vote in this election or are just barely too young to vote now, they are starting to see how politics is involved in every single aspect of our lives.
So many young people of color are starting to understand the impact that voting can have, especially with Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, or any other movements going on. We have the power in voting who represents us in these spaces. When it comes to young people voting, an added hurdle is worrying about having enough money to have a roof over your head. You are considered a young adult, you graduate college, and you just want to make sure you have everything to stay alive — like food, water, and shelter.
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Please consider making a contribution to Vox today to help us keep our work free for all. Youth turnout in U. One of the reasons young voters are traditionally disengaged, Warren says, can be traced to a failure of civics education. Warren co-founded Generation Citizen in in an effort to change that. Over the past decade-plus, the organization has become a leader in civics education curriculum and advocacy, partnering with middle and high schools across the country to train educators how to teach what it calls "action civics.
To date, Generation Citizen has worked with more than , students across the U. Warren will discuss his experiences with Generation Citizen, the attitudes of young people toward democracy, and the role young voters will play in determining the outcomes of the election as part of a panel discussion on Friday from noon to p.
The Hub spoke with Warren for his insights on why so many young people don't take part in elections, why might be different, and what issues matter most to the newest members of America's electorate. So you did see a lot more interest. But they do vote at much lower rates than older voters, and there are a few things going on there. First, I don't think we're teaching young people about the importance of participating, about how government works, and about the process itself.
And oftentimes what happens—and we're seeing it with this election—is that around election time there are all these efforts to register young people to vote. But that can't be the first time that they're engaging with democracy.
And I think that that's too often what happens. It's like, you don't wake up at 16 and have your driver's license on your doorstep, right? This is something that you've been thinking about for a while. It's a rite of passage. And then you get your permit, you take classes, you actually get behind the wheel before you get your license. I think we need to do similar work in our democracy. And so having effective civics education is incredibly important.
I do think that there's also a problem in that young people don't see democracy and politics as relevant to their lives.
And so you're seeing increasing numbers of young people that are just fed up with politics. It's like, with the presidential debate that we had recently, I think the reaction is, why would I get involved in this? What To Do About It: Focus on civic engagement, elections, and voting with all youth in your programs — even those too young to vote — and encourage them them research, discuss, and connect with local candidates. What To Do About It: Teach young people how to register and vote — and help them learn and practice these behaviors before they turn Help them learn about the issues and encourage them to share what they learn with others.
In the short term, we encourage you to help young people discover why politics and voting matters by showing them how the issues they volunteer to help fix also need to be addressed through policy to truly solve the problem. Long term, engaging them in advocacy for policies that make it easier to vote, or for campaign finance or gerrymandering reform could help them feel invested in changing the system. Young people who are contacted by an organization or a campaign are more likely to vote.
Additionally, those who discuss an election are more likely to vote in it. Youth who live in a place where members of their household are engaged and vote are more likely to do so themselves. Sunshine and I find that such programs have a large impact on voter turnout. One such program, the Fast Track intervention implemented in the s, was particularly successful at encouraging young people to vote. This program spent a few hours each week of the school year teaching young people to work well with others and persevere when things got difficult.
Even if, however, schools spend less time on teaching young people the ins and outs of voting they have the potential to have a large impact on voting. Indeed, we have good evidence that simply taking the time to teach young people how to vote, to practice interacting with a voting booth, and registering them to vote can have a big impact. These types of reforms have been shown to increase rates of youth turnout by as much as six percentage points.
Voting is unnecessarily complex for young people and civics curricula are not doing what they need to do to bring the next generation of citizens to the polls.
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