Pasadena Unified School District (Photo – Brigham Yen)
Pasadenans Empowering Parent Participation in Education Governance (PEPPEG) will present to the PUSD Board a proposal to amend the Pasadena City Charter to expand voting rights in PUSD elections to all parents of PUSD children, including noncitizen parents. The proposal also includes local control of PUSD elections and an all vote-by-mail system.
By Kate Bartlett
The presentation will be at the PUSD Board meeting, 6:30 p.m., June 13, 2019 (351 S. Hudson Avenue, Pasadena). If supported by the PUSD, the proposal would be considered by the Pasadena City Council for inclusion on the ballot in November 2020.
PEPPEG characterizes its efforts as part of a larger trend toward empowering more parents to participate in and have control over the education of their children. San Francisco passed a similar proposal in 2016. Chicago and eleven towns in Maryland allow noncitizens to vote in school district elections. Forty states allowed noncitizens to vote in local and federal elections from 1776 until the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment in the 1920s, according to Ron Hayduk, a professor of political science at San Francisco State University. Federal law now precludes noncitizen voting in federal and statewide elections, but not in local elections.
Since 2016 PEPPEG has met with members of the PUSD Board and with staff and members of the Pasadena City Council, and it has the support of many organizations and educators, including members of the District English Language Advisory Committee and Pasadenans Organizing for Progress.
Garrett Rowlan contributed to this story.
Please come to the next PUSD meeting June 13 at 6:15pm . It will be more information about this proposal.
I’m asking this question for more then 30 years ??
I dont even understand how this doeant exist already.
This is a great idea and has a long history in our country, if people bothered to even read the article. This could also be used to lower the voting age too. Local governments are the test incubators for democracy.
Impeach them all. Start over
Does this mean there will be separate ballots for PUSD elections?
People authorized to vote in school board elections would only be able to vote for school board, no other offices.
Given that the PUSD and ‘normal’ elections happen at the same time, does this mean that non-citizen parents would be given ONLY PUSD ballots?