Swing state teachers prep young voters for Election Day

Educators in swing states are preparing young people to make well-informed decisions on their ballots and register to vote in what has been a historically divisive presidential election.  
To understand what planning for Election Day looks like in America’s classrooms, USA TODAY talked to school staffers about preparation on their campuses.
One Las Vegas assistant principal is registering high school seniors to vote and encouraging them to work the polls on Nov. 5. A Philadelphia educator is teaching students in his social science class about the candidates’ positions on abortion, climate change, immigration and the nation’s involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. A North Carolina civics teacher is educating younger high schoolers about campaign spending, political action committees and propaganda.
At one Las Vegas charter school, many of the high school seniors who are eligible have registered to vote in November. Erik Van Houten, an assistant principal and American history teacher at Equipo Academy, helped make that happen.
It’s Van Houten’s goal as a teacher and field registrar with the Clark County Election Department to get young people civically engaged, he said.
Each year, he identifies eligible or soon-to-be eligible students and encourages them to register. To ensure students, their families and staff have the time they need to vote, Van Houten had advocated for the school to get Election Day off.
And it worked.
“The principal liked the idea, put it on our proposed schedule, and our board approved it,” he said.
On Nov. 5, some students from Van Houten’s school will spend the day working the Clark County polls to help the rest of the community vote rather than sitting in classrooms.
“Virtually all of our students know Spanish, and they become very valuable at polling sites,” he said.
In South Philadelphia, social science teacher Charlie McGeehan encourages students at the public magnet school where he teaches to consider how the presidential candidates’ values match up with their own.
To encourage that, he has taught them how to research the candidates’ stances on reproductive rights, climate change, immigration and involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. Those issues are at the top of his students’ minds, he said.
It’s crucial to him that his students have the right information.
Part of his curriculum is helping young people discern between facts and advertisements, he said. Because they live in a battleground state, his students are inundated with campaign flyers and advertisements, he said.
McGeehan has encouraged eligible students to register to vote and planned a field trip for students to a local youth voting rally.
“I appreciate how they approach issues and how they view the world,” he said. “It’s important for their ideas to be heard and represented not only because they are the future, but they have real and valuable perspectives right now.”
Youth voter registration ratesLagging compared with 2020: See map
Nearly every day in Frank Felicelli’s high school civics class, students spend about 10 minutes looking at election polling. Felicelli teaches sophomores and freshmen at a public school in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Students in his class this year will also learn about the Electoral College, campaign spending and political propaganda.
Felicelli’s mission is to encourage younger school students to care about the election. Many of his students are “uninformed about the country,” he said.
“But the whole horse race component of this election is something that intrigues them,” and he said that sometimes he can hook them in that way.
“It’s about making sure the information I present is fair and balanced” to keep them engaged, he said. “My kids don’t know my political persuasions.”
Political news deluge:Has teachers itching for class to start
It’s crucial high schoolers have the skills and knowledge to be civically engaged, said Tom Bailey, the president of Teachers College at Columbia University.
“Educators have a duty to create space for productive discussions and disagreements about the election during this contentious time,” he said.
“Adults are having a tough time talking about these issues.”
That makes it all the more crucial for teachers to create a productive space, he said, with the aim of ensuring “a strong democracy” for the future.
Contact Kayla Jimenez at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.