Harford County BoE Student Member Partial Voting Rights

It has come to our attention that the students of the Harford County Public School System are pursuing a change to the voting status for the student member on the Board of Education, granting partial voting rights on matters excluding:

•Operating and Capital budgets
•Collective bargaining
•Negative personnel matters
•Disciplinary matters
•Re- districting

For the following reasons, we, the undersigned residents of Harford County, support this endeavor in all entities and request that legislation is submitted and passed during the current legislative session of 2009, endowing the student member of the Board of Education of Harford County with partial voting rights:

•Two-thirds of Maryland students are already represented by a voting student member on their Board of Education.

•A voting student member would increase the empowerment of the youth of Harford County to take positive action and better serve the community.

•A voting student member has a unique perspective to contribute to Board affairs with experience that can only be gained through daily experience in Harford County Public Schools. This diversity of perspective would contribute to the diversity of Board deliberations.

•A voting student member will allow students to benefit from a culture of civic engagement, in which citizens from a young age become accustomed to selecting and working with public officials.

•A voting student would rarely be the “deciding vote” on any given matter, as they would be one of eight.

Ultimately, the addition of a voting student member would benefit the Harford County Board of Education as it would increase the accuacy in the reflection of contemplation and decisions made on behalf of the Harford County Public School System.

Sincerely,