After heated discussion the school district will move forward with plans to provide school bus transportation to polling locations on election day for students who are registered voters.
A similar service two years ago was criticized at the time for being funded by partisan organizations and also because it was not offered at every high school. Funding for this plan will come from the schools transportation budget. It will be offered at every high school but principals are not required to utilize it and eligible students are not required to ride the bus to vote.
Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson estimated that Hamilton County Schools has about 1,500 18-year-old students this fall, with fewer than that being registered to vote. The service will cost between $4,000 and $6,000, he said, and could be offered every two years for national elections.
School board member Felice Hadden said the school district’s budget is too tight to fund the service and cautioned against using taxpayer dollars for anything that is hard to keep unbiased.
“I just don’t think there is any way we can execute that and be completely nonpartisan at the same time,” she said.
School board member Jill Black said voting should be part of the civics curriculum required by the state and that the school system should help remove hardship or barriers to voting because “families depend on public transportation to get them where they need to go.”
“We’re a public school. We’re a part of government and we’re encouraging our kids to be involved in the civic process,” she said.
She and fellow board member Ben Connor argued that these oldest students also have jobs, and that they don’t have time to vote during early voting or on election day.
School board member Larry Grohn said, “That’s very denigrating,” to portray a young adult who has acquired a legal ID and a job, has registered to vote and cashes paychecks, as a person who cannot get to a polling location.
School board member Jodi Schaffer is concerned that funders and teachers will sway student votes.
“Like it or not, there is undue influence by our professionals,” she said. “You don’t live under a rock. This is a very controversial election.”
School board member Karitsa Jones in turn said it’s demeaning to insinuate that 18-year-olds can’t decide who to vote for without teacher input.
“I don’t want to believe that,” she said.
“People don’t want us to let philanthropy get them there. People don’t want us to get them there …”
“In a minute it’s going to feel like we’re implementing voter suppression and I don’t want to be part of that,” Ms. Jones said.
Chairman Joe Smith acknowledged that the board and the community are divided on the issue, but said students have already signed up for this trip.
“We’ve already told our kids we’re going to do this at this point. Probably the wrong thing to do is say, ‘No, just kidding,’ ” he said.
Hamilton County school administrators designed busing to the polls as a school field trip, so it is not approved by the school board. The service does not violate current board policy, Tennessee law or Tennessee code, Dr. Robertson said.
He said that going forward, the board may change the policy to prevent the service or to set up guardrails.
Students are officially excused to vote on election day, it was stated.