OAKLAND — Candidates seeking to lead the Oakland Unified School District faced a barrage of tough questions one recent evening — an interrogation led by an enthusiastic group of new voters suddenly endowed with political power: 16- and 17-year-old high school students.
In a first for California, teens in two Alameda County school districts, Berkeley and Oakland, were granted suffrage in school board races for the first time this November.
About 1,000 Oakland students had registered as of Oct. 22. And to court their newest and youngest constituents, several Oakland candidates assembled before a packed auditorium in East Oakland for a grilling.
“What ideas do you bring to the table to improve school safety for the schools in your district?” Ojiugo Egeonu, 16, a junior at Oakland Technical High School, asked the candidates. There had already been “several school shootings in the last year” on high school campuses, she added. Fremont High School, the site of the Oct. 22 candidate forum, was placed on lockdown in 2023 after two people were shot near campus.
The school board candidates tried to reassure the students, saying they were committed to improving safety, while also protecting students’ rights. The district’s newest voters listened carefully.
In a district facing a massive budget crisis and often abysmal test scores, students also had questions about school funding, campus safety, mental health, and college and career preparation support.
Many students said it was about time school board candidates played more heed to them.
“We’re not at the kids’ table anymore,” Maximus Simmons, a junior at Oakland High, said. “This is the first time young people have had a real voice in school board elections in a major city. This is only the beginning.”
Across the country, a few small cities have made it possible for young people to cast votes in local elections.
The first place in California to authorize youth suffrage was Berkeley, where in 2016 more than 70% of voters approved a measure allowing students to have a voice in school board races.
Voters in Oakland followed suit in 2020 with Measure QQ. But because it took several years to work out the mechanics, officials said, youth voting will happen for the first time in both cities this month.
“This has never been done before in California, and we had to make sure that it was done properly,” Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis said in a statement.
The push is expanding to more cities. In the Bay Area, voters in Albany will vote Tuesday on a measure to grant suffrage to 16- and 17-year-olds. In Southern California, Culver City voters narrowly defeated a similar measure in 2022, while San Francisco voters also shot down such measures in 2016 and 2020.
Sixteen- and 17- year-olds must register to vote and are sent a ballot with only the school board candidates in their district, preventing them from voting in other races.
At the candidates’ forum at Fremont High, school board candidates took notice of their newest constituency. Seven of the eight candidates running for four open seats in Oakland attended.
“I’m here to listen to all of you, because that is what you deserve,” Ben Salop, 20, a 2022 graduate of Oakland Technical High School, told the students. “Let’s make Oakland a truly student-led district.”
“It’s a big deal that 16- and 17-year-olds can vote in Oakland and Berkeley school board elections, as they now influence who represents their interests,” said Laura Wray-Lake, a professor of social welfare at UCLA, who has conducted research on youth civic engagement. She emphasized that these students see school inequities firsthand and will likely vote for candidates prioritizing equity and student support, and who will “listen to their views.”
Oakland and Berkeley could set an example for other cities, she said, by showing young people can vote responsibly. As the largest, most diverse city with a lower voting age, she says that Oakland may inspire similar movements in other cities like Newark, N.J., and a youth-led movement in Minnesota aiming to lower the voting age for school board elections.
The Oakland district, which enrolls about 34,000 students, many of whom live in poverty, has been plagued by troubles in recent years. It faces a $95-million budget gap, shrinking enrollment, and has closed campuses amid allegations that it is failing students. It has also struggled with low test scores, particularly among Black and Latino students.
“We started this movement because we saw our school board directors making decisions without considering student perspectives,” said Natalie Gallegos Chavez, a sophomore at UC Berkeley who was a student at Oakland High School when she first became involved in the Oakland Youth Vote Coalition at its inception in 2019.
Gallegos said that the movement to implement Measure QQ was inspired by the school program closures, which she viewed as against the interests of students. In 2019, the Oakland School Board cut $20.2 million from its budget, including 100 jobs and several schools.
Many students said the chance to vote on school board races has made them more engaged in politics in general.
“I became more interested once I knew we actually might have an opportunity to have our voices be heard,” said Anne Diby, 16, a junior at Skyline High School in Oakland. “It’s opened my eyes to how government decisions are being viewed by youth.”
Diby’s classmate Autumn Weems, 16, added that the ability to vote has motivated her to become more informed about the issues affecting her school. “We basically are now put in a position to control our education, which is something we should have been able to do in the first place,” she said.
Tommy Lemasney, 17, a senior at Skyline, said voting has made him more aware of the need for youth voices to be heard in politics.
“I want students to have more of a say, not just adults who think they know everything,” Lemasney said. “Youth voices should be heard, especially when it comes to who represents us.”
At the event at Fremont High, many candidates rushed to agree with the students on the value of youth voting.
Candidate Dwayne Aikens Jr. told the students he had grown up in poverty and as a victim of gun violence in Oakland. He was running to improve schools, he said, and also to “put hope and aspiration on the ballot.”
VanCedric Williams, who is running for reelection against Aikens, encouraged students to remain vocal and continue to push for student involvement in budgeting decisions.
“We’re gonna need to hear your voice,” he said. In response, the students showered him with loud snaps of approval and applause.
Tanaka is a special correspondent.
