Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had made education bill into a political partisan issue and vetoed it in 2004

September 20, 2006

By Katie Copenhagen

Every year high school students in California volunteer to work at the polls at elections. In order to work at the polls they have to miss a day of school. As a result the school's ADA (average daily attendance) drops and they loose hundreds of dollars of funding.

Working at the polls at elections is a very unique experience. Students get to have a hands on participation in democracy, which is easily as valuable or more valuable than teacher's lecture or reading a chapter out of a text book. Students at schools that cannot afford to loose the funding loose this important educational experience.

In 2004 a group of students at Acalanes high school in Lafayette took the initiative to write and advocate a bill (AB 1944 (Hancock)) that would allow students to miss a day of school to work at the polls without the school's ADA being affected. The bill passed through senate and legislature and got to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk. The governor vetoed the bill.

Last year some more students decided to give this bill another shot. They found a senator to write and fund it and got it all the way through senate and legislature, and now it is again on Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger desk waiting for him to sign it into law or veto it.

Unfortunately this bill has turned into something of a partisan issue even though it should be a matter of education not politics.