Over the week of March 11-15, schools around New York City celebrated Civics for All Week by encouraging students to learn more about issues involving democracy, civic readiness, and community-wide engagement. Civics for All (CFA) is a NYC DOE-wide initiative for Public Schools involving grades K-12. This year’s theme was “Democracy Needs You.” During the week a variety of events took place, including student voter registration drives, guest speakers, and a poster contest.
According to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), the youth voter turnout, which is defined as the number of eligible voters that vote during an election, remains low at 23% nationwide and 20.7% in New York. As a result, Civics For All Week aims to improve voter turnout and voter participation among high school students.
“Gen Z and millennials make up a very large voting block, but if we don’t exercise that right and we’re only voting at a rate of like 20% of eligible voters, then we can’t make the impact that we have a right, and in my view, responsibility to do,” said Ms. McGuirk, the Assistant Principal of Social Studies. “My message to seniors is always the future is ours if we take that step. Democracy requires action.”
Ron Cagujas, an AP United States Government and Politics student, gave his take as to why the national youth voter turnout is as low as it is.
“I think specifically with young people, it [political issues] is kind of a taboo thing because for one, politics isn’t really talked about and it’s not really a popular thing to do,” said Cagujas. “Even though most of us [seniors or juniors] can do it, people don’t choose to. I think the most common thing I hear is that people don’t think that their voice matters.”
Despite the lack of popularity politics have amongst youth, Cagujas elaborated on why youth should still vote and why he plans to vote.
“I want my voice to be heard in the government, even if it’s in a small way… I think it is because from my point of view, what I think is yeah, maybe an individual’s voice doesn’t matter. But when everyone has that mentality, you’re taking away so many potential voters that it’s detrimental to democracy as a whole system.”
Councilwoman Sandra Ung visited the school to talk to students about the importance of voting for the upcoming 2024 elections during Civics Week. She also spoke about participating in government, and her experiences in proposing and writing legislation that would have a an impact on local communities. She elaborated on how her Cambodian origin and the linguistic challenges faced as an immigrant have shaped her views, leading to her decision to help represent others who do not have English as their first language.
“I have proposed a lot of language access bills about New York City providing better language access for communities of color and also immigrant communities where English is not everyone’s first language,” said Ung. “I proposed some changes to how 311 works, especially with people for whom English is not their first language.
On the topic of immigration, Cagujas spoke out about how his second-generation immigrant background has shaped his priorities as a student voter.
“My parents are immigrants and it’s a very important topic for my family,” said Cagujas. “States like Florida or Texas are mistreating immigrants, not letting them get the basic human rights that everyone does deserve, and I think that’s a very important topic to address now before it gets worse.”
Councilwoman Ung also discussed the value of libraries in our community and her wish to prioritize them in budgeting negotiations, as they are being impacted by NYC-wide budget cuts.
“I think libraries to me are one of the most important institutions in the whole of New York City,” Ung said. “It’s not only where you go and borrow books, it is really a community center for especially a community like the one I represent. It’s really where you find trusted information: if you don’t know what’s in the community, you’re probably going to go to the library to find out what’s going on.”
Cajugas also discussed how abortion and the overturning of Roe v. Wade could motivate young people to vote in the upcoming elections.
“Since they outlawed it, people are questioning now, ‘Is that gonna happen in my state?’” continued Cajugas. “I think it’s important to vote on issues like that because it’s not just about women, but everyone, everyone who wants to start a family.”
In face of these issues, Ms. McGuirk commented on how youth today can directly contribute to their community by exploring causes and finding solutions themselves to these complex issues.
“Who do the top colleges want?” asked Ms. McGuirk. “They want the kid in your class that’s going to cure cancer, but they also want that kid in your class that’s going to look at all of the social issues that are going on in this world and think ‘what are the radical solutions that we need to take these steps?’ These are huge issues that are going to affect you guys, and we need representatives that care about and encourage more youth to get involved and think critically about these [issues], because that’s also who we need. We need those leaders.”
Councilwoman Ung asserts that students can directly contact their local representatives about issues that impact them first-hand and try to get those issues addressed
“You should actually reach out to your local elected officials and let them know what your thoughts are about certain issues,” Ung said. “And better yet, if you have a new idea and you think, ‘I think this is a great way to resolve this issue,’ I would like to hear that too. I’ll be earnest, it’s very easy to complain: it’s very easy to say, this is a problem and it’s much harder to come up with a solution … I think that actually really does inform me about what it is that my district wants and how they want to better the community they’re in.”
Not only is civics about voting, but also Ms. McGuirk asserts that it is “being involved in your community” and “volunteering in the community” to make it a better place.
“How are you gonna make that [community] better for you and your friends or you and your children one day?” Ms. McGuirk said. “It’s by being involved in your local government. If you know there’s a dangerous road in your community, how can you make a difference? These are the things that affect us everyday, and our local government has a heavy hand in all these things that affect us.”
Better yet, local representatives such as Councilwoman Ung “actively listen[s] to constituents,” adding a layer of open-mindedness that facilitates the process of problem-solving.
“I actually hear what people are saying, what is it that is going on in their lives that they want to be better, and do they have any ideas about how to make it better?” Councilwoman Ung said. “And this is something which I think all of you sitting right here can really right now participate in. Between my office and I, anytime you send me an email about what you think about an issue about how we can improve the issue, I read all those emails.”
“When someone could send me a letter, I actually also read that,” Councilwoman Ung continues. “When anyone gives me a phone call, someone does pick up that phone call. So I just wanna let you know that your voices can be heard, but it’s important to reach out.”
Councilwoman Ung asserts that student volunteers can play a valuable role in campaigning, or the process in which candidates running for office can “reach out to voters to convince them” to vote for them.
“Accounting on volunteers on any campaign is probably the most important part of the campaign to me because there’s only so much money you’re gonna raise. But for volunteers who come and help you, [they do it] because they believe in your message and believe who you are – that’s a really important part of the campaign. There are a lot of elections going on right now, so if you want to see what’s it like to be part of a campaign, and you want to see more about how you want to help your person, the person who you believe represents you, it’s a very good opportunity right now to volunteer for a campaign.”
On the other hand, Cagujas is critical of presidential campaigns and whether they actually inform voters on the candidates or not.
“When you see presidential candidates, you think about their name and the controversial things they’ve said and stuff like that,” said Cajugas. “But you don’t really think about what they’re gonna do once they get into office. I think a popular example of this is Donald Trump: I don’t think a lot of people know his political agenda, but people know him for the stuff he says.”
Yee agrees, stating that campaigning has become too focused on controversy, leading to misinformed voting.
“People just vote without actually knowing [what they stand for],” said Yee. “Like, if you’re voting for an S.O. person, you probably just vote for someone that you know, and it [presidential election] is kind of a similar thing like, Oh, I heard, for example, that Trump is bad. I heard that Biden is this. When you just hear something like that, it’s like, ‘I just want to vote whatever,’ because they [voters] don’t wanna take that much into consideration.”
While the internet has revolutionized campanging, Yee believes that it is not being used to inform voting and instead lead to more polarized political ideologies.
“I honestly don’t think I put my trust in the majority,” said Yee. “I feel like with the internet and stuff like that, people have had very strong opinions without actually being informed about specific instances or topics. For example, I feel like people don’t even know how voting for your president works; people don’t actually know how the electoral college works. And so, I feel like people not understanding or having a basic knowledge of it [political matters] puts my lack of trust in it.”
Despite extreme political agendas, Yee does still believe voting is still crucial and a way for voters to express their opinions.
Especially, I feel like politics now, we can’t come to like an intermediary,” said Yee. “It’s always like oh, you have to be very strongly opinionated, so that kind of does decrease my trust. But, I still feel like your opinion matters in it because you still are, for better or worse, part of the majority. And I feel like that’s part of voting.”
Despite the controversy, misinformed voting, and polarized political ideology, Cajugas believes that voting is an important way to get your voice heard and play a role in who represents us in the government.
“I think more than ever, voting is important because we are still seeing a lot more people feel dissatisfied with the people that we elect,” said Cajugas. “I think that could partially be solved with just voting. If you’re not voting, then you can’t really complain about who gets elected to office because you played no part in fighting against or helping them. If you’re dissatisfied with the way the government is right now, then you have to vote.”
