Young Philly voters will be key in the next election. Here’s how to mobilize them.

Only 26% of eligible 18-year-olds in the Philadelphia region have registered to vote. As the 2024 elections draw closer, we hear urgent calls to increase youth voter registration, as though that will suddenly create engaged, first-time voters. While this concern is well founded, there are few serious options for funding, programs, or policies that will make a long-term difference in youth voter participation.

The work of creating engaged and informed youth voters requires a much longer, more profound commitment to the young people of Philadelphia than simply getting them registered to vote.

Late last month, a crushing article told the stories of 23 children killed by gunfire. A map in the article shows the locations where children were shot, wounded, or killed — a wide swath that cuts diagonally across the city, where most of Philly’s Black families live, and where poverty is most pervasive. Another map by the Philadelphia City Commissioners shows the very same areas are wards with the lowest voter turnout.

More than 20 public high schools educate students from these neighborhoods, but are we teaching enough about the systemic causes of poverty and violence or public policy in civics classes — and how young people can make a difference? How are students expected to believe that their voices matter when their safety and educational needs aren’t met?

Nonpartisan organizations are working with the city commissioners to launch the Philly Rises Tour to teach Philadelphia public high school students about their voting rights and the electoral process. The goal is to reach as many neighborhood schools as possible, but the funding has yet to materialize. During national election years, funding often arrives close to Election Day, but by then it’s too late. Students must have time to practice building the skills of informed voters: media literacy, political ideology, and researching candidates’ positions on the issues they care about.

There is a tremendous need for civic education programs to reach students, particularly in the lowest-turnout neighborhoods. These programs can build a student voting infrastructure in schools and connect with neighborhood community organizations. Teachers are being asked to perform voter turnout miracles in 2024, but the underlying truth is that engaged voters are best grown early, and over the course of years; informed voters are not made during the length of a presidential campaign.

Transformative electoral change happens only through ongoing dialogue, skill-building, and student empowerment. This is work that has to be sustained year-round, every year. Sustained civic programming will build lifelong voters and bring badly needed attention to our city from state and national policymakers.

The School District of Philadelphia deserves credit for its efforts. In 2022, the Board of Education passed the “Student Voter Education and Registration Resolution,” which initially helped direct more support toward a civics curriculum. Teachers tasked as “Voter Champions” sponsored voter engagement clubs, but that support is diminishing due to funding shortfalls.

The district provides professional development on voter education and made great progress in adding a locally developed elections and voting unit to the 12th-grade civics curriculum, until a scarcity of funds forced a shift of resources, leaving Philly teachers to use half-finished civics units. Finding credible information about issues and candidates is a critical task in preparation for today’s elections, and most Philadelphia public schools don’t even have a working library. All grade levels and subjects need a solid curriculum that includes information about voting.

Hopefully, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s new education budget will mean fewer sacrifices are made in student learning. In the meantime, with around 12,000 Philadelphia School District students eligible to vote on Nov. 5, we must educate students now so they are prepared.

The Board of Education needs to pass a new civic and voter education policy that ensures students are ready for every election. Residents can help by asking the board to pass a policy with the teeth to require the district to support civic education and to implement this programming.

At the state level, we can ask our lawmakers to support greater education funding in the budget and the “Improving Youth Voting and Civic Engagement” bills, HB 1826 and HB 1827, which will allow students to preregister to vote at 16, and will provide teachers with the training and resources to do justice to civic education.

Philadelphia’s youngest voters deserve nothing less than our full support to help make the connections between the issues plaguing their city. We must empower these young voters through funding, policy, and civics programs.

Angelique Hinton is the executive director of PA Youth Vote and the president of Norristown NAACP. Kamryn Davis is the Philadelphia regional organizer of PA Youth Vote and a School District of Philadelphia graduate. Thomas Quinn is the education and policy director of PA Youth Vote and a School District of Philadelphia civics teacher.