Encouraging Students To Vote

The Broward County School District in South Florida helped their students vote during this election. Schools in the district registered students and took them to early voting sites as a field trip. "Assistant principal Julie Biancardi helped register the teens and is pleased with their political knowledge." (October 29, 2008) The Broward County school district has 32 schools with over 70,000 students. All the schools' efforts were nonpartisan.

The same situation during the primaries occurred in Hammond Indiana with a different reaction. Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. called the field trip to early voting sites for the primaries unethical. Mayor McDermott (a Hillary Clinton Supporter) stated, "To me it seems like an orchestrate effort on behalf of the Obama campaign to take kids who should be in school learning to read and write, instead giving them a day off and telling them to vote for Obama." (April 24, 2008)

If these efforts help people register and become involved in their communities, should these efforts to help students register and provide transportation to voting sites be spread to other schools and school districts? There is no law saying that these actions are illegal, then shouldn't all schools begin helping their students?