• In a first for California, teenagers will get to vote in local races on the November ballot.

• The young voters grilled candidates at a recent candidates’ forum in 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.

 

Continue to read the full story in Los Angeles Times.