Paul Bass Photo
Young New Haven students now cast votes on decisions made by the Citywide Youth Coalition. The CYC wants to see student members be able to do the same on the Board of Education — and in New Haven municipal elections.
So said Addys Castillo and Ta’LannaMonique Miller, executive director and community organizer, respectively, at the 43-year-old coalition of local groups that work with young people.
The CYC helped successfully push for New Haven’s Board of Education to add two elected student members in 2014. Those student members have been widely praised for their constructive role in debates. But they can’t vote on board decisions, because the rules say that votes msut be cast by people who are also able to vote in municipal election.
So now the CYC is taking the next step: pushing for a municipal law to allow 16 and 17-year-old to vote for mayor and alder and Board of Education. That will require state enabling legislation.
Ta’LannaMonique Miller and Addys Castillo at WNHH FM.
“A lot of young people are seen and not heard,” Castillo said during a joint appearance with Miller on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program. “They have to live with the policies we make.”
She and Miller noted that many teens have jobs and generally face the kind of adult decisions that older New Haveners do, balancing work, school, and in some cases parenting.
“Our young people are growing up faster than they used to,” Miller noted. She added that when students get involved in the. political system, they in turn encourage their parents and other adults in their lives to vote.
The CYC’s efforts in New Haven dovetail with similar campaigns around the country, including an effort by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley to pass a 16-year-old suffrage amendment.
CYC has added voting student members to its own board, Castillo said. The group recently moved into new office space above the Subway at Temple and Chapel streets.
Teens helped lead the successful effort this year to push New Haven’s Board of Alders to pass a “climate emergency” resolution, and they are now pushing for New Haven’s school system to add more perspectives in history classes, recycle and compost food waste, and crack down on bullying.
Click on the video to watch the full interview with Citywide Youth Coalition’s Addys Castillo and Ta’LannaMonique Miller on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.