Dispatches from an 8-Year Old Canvassing for his school levy
My son - whose excellent observations about school board meetings I've shared here previously - joined me in canvassing for our local school district levy this past Saturday.
He voluntarily spent several Saturdays this fall helping me ask our neighbors to vote yes for increased taxes - further evidence that kids can do hard things.
Engaging locally with my son was heartening. As always, he asked great questions that led us to talk about the following:
Sometimes we’re not going to agree with our neighbors. We can all be civil about it and we’re going to continue to enjoy spending time together at many future school and community events.
Some of our neighbors weren’t sure how they were going to vote, but they had really thoughtful questions and planned to do some more research. I’m so grateful to these neighbors for modeling the work that can and should go into being an informed voter.
Lately, my son has been fascinated by the idea that we can cross a road and find ourselves in a different school district. Canvassing gave us a great chance to talk about those boundaries and their implications - how families in different communities can all value education equally, but experience it differently based on their communities’ financial assets. We can care about our local school district levy in the broader context of statewide education.
It’s easier to vote in a new school levy when you’re confident your district leaders are making responsible choices about how to invest limited dollars. I recently asked our district leaders how they make decisions about spending and hearing that those decisions are aligned with our strategic plan and data-informed made it easier to advocate for a yes vote!
