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By Jason Dietrich
Tuesday, Nov. 7 voters in Redondo Beach will be asked to approve a $52 million school bond. But some of the efforts to galvanize residents to vote have riled parents, who say whether they're registered to vote is none of the district's business.
School districts are prevented from campaigning for candidates or ballot issues by state law, but they can inform parents about issues that may affect the schools and encourage them to vote. Many school districts conduct voter drives when issues affecting the schools are on the ballot.
Students in the Redondo Beach School District were sent home with voter registration cards attached to a letter from their school's principal several weeks ago. The letter explained what money from Measure E would be used for.
At the bottom of the letter, next to a space for the parent's name was a single question, asking parents to check off one of three choices. The question asked whether the parents had attached a signed registration card, were already registered to vote or preferred not to register.
District officials met with principals to discuss getting the information on the bond out to parents. Principals spoke with their teachers. Teachers told their students to get their parents to fill out the forms and bring them back to school. At some schools, extra credit points were awarded to children who brought back the forms.
"We talked as a staff about getting the forms back, and thought the best way to encourage the kids was to give out a couple of extra credit points. It was worked into a social studies lesson about the responsibilities of living in a democracy," said Adams Middle School principal Karen Westberg, who added that all students were given the extra credit points regardless of whether they turned in the forms.
At elementary schools, other "incentives," small prizes like pencils or the promise of a special lunch were used to encourage children to bring back the signed forms. But a few parents objected to using bait, however small, to get their children to collect information about them, especially information that they say shouldn't concern the district.
"It puts me in a position of having to tell my child 'no' when I really shouldn't have to. My decision of whether or not I want to tell the school district about if I want to vote shouldn't impact my kid. And tiny things like that can be a big deal to little kids," said one parent who asked not to be named.
"I object strongly to using children for political purposes like this," said parent and schools activist Greg Anderson.
Several school principals said they had received no complaints from parents about the voter push.
"We got a lot of calls from parents thanking us for doing the voter drive," said Jeanne Keith, principal of Jefferson Elementary. Voter registration cards turned in at Jefferson were passed on to the school district, and no record was kept of the signed returned letters, said Keith.
District spokesman Jerry Klein said the school district also hadn't received any complaints from parents. He said that the voter registration cards were sent into the county registrar's office and that the district hadn't kept track of what cards were turned back in.
A drive to get registered voters to cast their ballots by mail is ongoing in the school district. ER