We don’t believe Hamilton County Schools should be engaged in spending taxpayer money to cart students to early voting sites to cast a ballot in the upcoming presidential election.
However, since Superintendent Justin Robertson and his team determined it would happen, it ought to involve all eligible and interested students, or none.
Instead, the decision is up to school administrators, and apparently some have said they’ll allow it and some — based on the small number of 18-year-old students or the low number interested — not. That, it appears to us, is at least a form of unfairness. In short, all high schools should participate, or none should.
We hope all eligible voters will cast a ballot, especially younger ones, because it sets a good precedent for the future. Determining to vote, becoming fully informed about all the candidates and issues on the ballot, making a plan to get to the polling place and voting ought to be every citizen’s responsibility.
The idea to use taxpayer money for the buses supposedly came out of a community group’s effort two years ago to take students from only three schools to the polls. Administrators felt that might lead to partisan influences, but the fix to leave it up to individual principals or school heads still left out some students.