All Parents Should Have a Say!
San Francisco recently granted all parents the right to vote in school board elections regardless of their citizenship status. This decision came after a conservative group called the United States Justice Foundation started that immigrant parents should not be allowed to vote because that would weaken the vote of citizen parents. The San Francisco Supreme Court appealed the group’s lawsuit, allowing all parents to have a say in what happens in their children’s schools and districts. San Francisco is now part of a few other cities in the US that have expanded the voting rights of non-citizen parents in school board elections.
This ruling is great news, not only for non-citizen parents but for everyone in a school community. Similar to what a parent in the article shared, every parent should be allowed to have a say in what goes on in their child’s schools. This should not exclude non-citizen parents because they are a massive part of our communities. Hopefully, other big cities in California will follow in San Francisco’s footsteps, granting voting rights to all parents so our public schools can be a true democracy.
Court grants immigrant parents right to vote in San Francisco school elections
Zaidee Stavely, EdSource | August 9, 2023