Blog

Your Education Road Map

Politics K-12®

ESSA. Congress. State chiefs. School spending. Elections. Education Week reporters keep watch on education policy and politics in the nation’s capital and in the states. Read more from this blog.

Education

The Kid Vote

By Alyson Klein — April 08, 2008 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

So, according to this New York Times story, Democratic super-delegates, as well as regular voters, are getting pressured into voting for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. (and in some cases, rival Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.) by their kids.

And apparently supporters are going after the Sponge Bob vote, via Web sites such as Yrmomma4obama, which includes pro-Obama text messages kids can send their parents (in English and Spanish!) The Yrmomma4obama Web site includes a list of reasons why kids should encourage their parents to vote for Obama ... none of which mention education. Obama’s own campaign Web site has a section for kids, although some of the language may be beyond that of the average 7-year-old (i.e. advice to “draw a picture of Sen. Obama or an ‘expression of democracy.’”)

There’s also a KidsforHillary site that mentions that “politicians controle [sic] the kind of schools we go to.” Presumably a push for schools to be better at teaching spelling?

Wonder whether either candidate will see this story and decide to start more actively courting the “kid” demographic ... a federal limit on homework, perhaps?