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Aminah Muhammad is a member of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition.
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy
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Aminah Muhammad is a member of the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition.
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy
Photo Credit: Photo courtesy
Nevertheless, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill—written without the support of my community—into law targeting my school board’s election process. The law makes Gwinnett’s school board election impartial, meaning candidates would no longer have a “D” or “R” next to their name on the ballot. Even more critically, school board elections will be held on May 24 instead of their usual month of November. If the goal of democracy is for every voter to have an informed voice and access to vote, this bill does the exact opposite.
DiscoverGwinnett’s school board election is now three months away after the GOP push
Republican lawmakers claim their goal is to depoliticize my education. Instead, moving the election from November to May blatantly undermines turnout in those elections — the sudden change in voting timing confuses voters and makes it harder to encourage turnout, especially for voters like my parents and neighbors who skip work and break through would have to face language barriers just to exercise their voting rights. Their ultimate goal is clear: Republican lawmakers want to deprive not only families of color of crucial representation, but also children of color like me.
Why do we make it difficult for voters – especially new, young and often marginalized ones – to elect leaders who share their beliefs and priorities? Politicians went out of their way to steal this election from the hands of our community, despite the fact that the other 158 counties in Georgia were accorded the right to local control, and despite the fact that even conservative Gwinnett voters supported our school board candidates want to have to declare their political affiliation.
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Studies show that having only one person of color on a school board increases financial investment in schools with large minority groups. For Gwinnett, that’s all of our schools – almost 80% of Gwinnett’s students are black. For me, the impact of representation goes beyond the big picture. When I hear the chair of the school board, Dr. Tarece Johnson, sympathetic to requests from Muslim students to hold Eid as an official school holiday, I know what representation feels like. When a family friend, a first-generation American and mother of a special-needs student, tells me that she plans to run for the board of directors, I feel empowered by the idea that families who receive the most from our local schools to be touched, to have a voice in Gwinnett.
With this bill passed, I’m not so sure anymore. It is clear that our state politicians care more about maintaining power than maintaining democracy and local control. But Gwinnett’s families of all races and backgrounds know we deserve better than voter suppression.
Although Governor Kemp and the lawmakers under the Gold Dome have chosen to ignore the pleas of the Gwinnettians, we are not being silenced or deterred. With two board seats at stake, young organizers across the county are already preparing to educate and advocate for those most impacted by school board decisions.
To voters in Gwinnett and across the state: Don’t let our voices be silenced; vote on or before May 24th. To our lawmakers: Leave our local school board to the votes of Gwinnett’s nearly 1 million residents. Our schools, our children, our board of directors – we’ll see each other at the ballot box sooner rather than later.
