Partial Student Voting Rights: You Weigh In

At Monday's Harford County School Board meeting, the student representative urged the board to vote in support of a bill that would go before the Maryland state legislature allowing future . Student representatives have partial voting rights on some school boards elsewhere in the state.

For the past two years, Harford County students have had support from the school board on the voting issue, Bel Air High School student Christina McIntyre said at Monday's meeting, and last year were close to having a bill passed in the state legislature. The bill was approved in the house, but not in the state senate. A member of the Harford County delegation would have to introduce the proposed legislation.

With partial voting rights, the student representative would not be able to vote on matters involving the budget, school boundaries, appointment of the superintendent, collective bargaining or expulsion. Students could also be included in closed sessions about permitted topics, but could be excluded from closed sessions for any reason.

Some board members expressed concern over having an even number of voting members, whether or not a student could handle the responsibility and whether other counties have had success with partial student voting rights. At least one school board member was also hesitant about the possibility of partial voting rights becoming full voting rights.