Reflections on 2024 for the 8 million US high school students who will turn 18 by the next Presidential election.

Dear Students,

You were on my mind as I watched the election unfold this year. As registration deadlines came and went, as early voting started, and through the rush of last-minute Get-Out-The-Vote efforts, I was thinking about what will lead you to vote throughout your lives, and what the barriers are that are standing in the way. Where can you put your time if you want to build your own leadership to strengthen our democracy while you are still in high school? 

Here are the top 5 things I thought you’d want to know.

1. Young people made a critical difference in many elections, but 27% turnout is not a big number.

The news after Election Day was all about high youth turnout. We know that young people made a critical difference in many races. But let’s separate those achievements from the overall rate of youth turnout, which remains low. 

We heard that youth ages 18-29 voted in 2022 at a rate of 27%. Many headlines praised this number as highlighting a great rise in youth political power over prior decades.

You are a student. You know that 27% is not a good score. It’s not a passing grade on any test at all. It’s not even the majority. 

This is not a knock on you. It’s a knock on the failure of our country, our states, cities, school districts and schools for not bothering to invest at a remotely reasonable level to make sure all eligible high school students are registered and ready to vote by the time you graduate high school. 

If you are frustrated by this number and by the rah rah chorus acting as if 27% is awesome, you can do something about it.

2. There are laws today that authorize  high school voter registration programs and that can dramatically increase youth participation in 2024.  Make sure these laws are implemented because in most places they just sit on the books and are never actually put into effect.

In every state in the country, the majority of high school students are old enough to register to vote before they graduate. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia allow young people to preregister to vote as soon as they turn 16. In 35 states young people have at least a year or more in which to register before a first election. 

Yet, most schools have no training, resources, programs, policies, or assessments relating to giving these laws life. Tell your high school administrators and election officials that whether they know it or not, they are responsible for making sure that every student graduates registered and ready to vote.

3. You have political power today, whether you are 18 or not, and you can use that power to strengthen our democracy and your own role in it right now 

Once you register to vote, you have power. Your elected officials care about getting re-elected.  And you, as a registered voter, will be able to vote for them (or not) when you are 18 years old.  Organize. Help get your friends to register to vote. Show up at public meetings, write to or call officials and let them know you are registered or preregistered to vote and that you have helped hundreds of other students register. That is political power. Elected officials would be crazy to ignore that kind of organizing. And if they do, then the registration effort you have organized can turn into the power to elect someone more wise.

The extent of your power is significant. More than 5 million high school students are eligible to register or preregister to vote right now. Eight million will be old enough to register before graduation in 2024.

Ask any political pundit, and they will tell you this is real power both for a generation of future voters and for the students today who will lead it tomorrow.

4. Your communities need to hear your stories.

The pressures your generation is facing and the attacks on your schools and on our democracy are not going away by themselves.

This year, we heard the voices of students across the country about the issues that matter most to them. They told us that the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, eliminating federal constitution protection for abortion, was ridiculous and disgusting. We heard about their fears of climate change, school shootings, and efforts to subvert democracy. We heard about their mental health struggles with anxiety and depression and their financial struggles with student debt and the high cost of housing. We heard their rejection of efforts to demonize them and their friends based on race, sexuality, gender identity and other characteristics that are weaponized to seed division.

What we can reflect back is that we hear you loud and clear.

What we can teach is the tool of public narrative. Storytelling skills can help students understand and explain how public issues impact their lives and how they can connect with others to make change.

The people around you care about you and even if it takes a long time, when they hear about your experiences and what you need, you can create the conditions for change. Keep telling us your stories. We hear them.

5. It’s ok not to waste your time trying to convince people who are set on causing you harm or who have no interest in meaningful dialogue.

We hear from many of you that social media can be toxic and that it’s exhausting to be constantly on call, ferreting out misinformation and assigned responsibility to fix problems that others have caused.
Give yourself permission to take a break, to take care of yourself, and to decide for yourself what is worth your time. You can choose to be the debunker, reacting quickly to what others put out and correcting the record.

But you can also pause to dream about a better future and your determination and capacity to have a role in bringing it about. There’s a reason we always talk about the American Dream and that Martin Luther King used the phrase I have a Dream in his most famous speech. Dreams are a proud part of our history and your dreams are our future. I can’t wait to hear about yours.