They can in the General Assembly. They can drive a car. They can . They can consent to , or . They can in a week and pay taxes on these earnings. They can put that money in a they’ve opened.

These are some things 17-year-olds can do in Rhode Island, and a few apply to 16-year-olds as well. A recent pair of bills brought to the State House would give older teenagers one more privilege: the ability to vote in elections for their local school committees.

“Students go to the meetings, they can talk at the meetings, they can give all the ideas that they want,” said Henry Siravo, 17, a senior at Smithfield High School. “But at the end of the day, how often do they get listened to? We get brushed off as kids.”

A pair of bills sponsored by two Democratic lawmakers — by Rep. Leonela Felix of Pawtucket and by Sen. Tiara Mack of Providence — would make it harder to brush off kids.

The identical bills do not mandate any statewide changes. They would create the statutory outline to allow 16- and 17 year-olds to vote in school committee elections, but the key phrase in the bills’ language is that municipalities “may provide” this privilege — it wouldn’t be required. Additional stipulations are that the 16- or 17 year-old would have to be a resident of the municipality for at least 30 days, and register at least 30 days before the school election itself.

“We always talk about people not being engaged in elections as adults,” Felix said in a phone interview. “What better way to get them engaged than starting early?”

Siravo started early: He originally became involved with Young Democrats of Rhode Island, who have also pushed for the current legislation, after he rallied against the Smithfield School Committee in 2023, who were considering a disclosure policy that could potentially out transgender and LGBTQ students to their parents.

“I organized over 100 students, but mostly parents, teachers and just community members to come out against that, because as powerful as the testimonies of the students were, they didn’t vote. They didn’t get to hold them accountable at the ballot box,” Siravo said.

“We really don’t have financial power to donate to candidates,” Siravo continued. “The bare minimum that we’re asking for is a voice, so that we can say, ‘If you slash our department funding, if you make school really hell to go to 
 we’re gonna vote you out.’ Right now, we don’t have that voice. We don’t have that say.”

The legislation mirrors efforts in other states to see youths represented in electoral processes. Maryland state law leaves it up to municipalities to lower the voting age for local elections — and the city of enacted their youth voting legislation over a decade ago in 2013 when they approved 16-year-olds’ participation in local elections.

Earlier this year in Newark, New Jersey, municipal officials OK’d 16-year-olds’ votes in school committee elections — although Chalkbeat in February that the law wouldn’t be in effect until 2025 because of voter registration issues. KQED that Berkeley and Oakland passed measures allowing 16-year-olds to vote but that the law hasn’t been satisfactorily enacted yet either.

Meanwhile, campaigns similar to Rhode Island’s are underway in Michigan, Hawaii, Illinois and Massachusetts as well as a number of California cities, according to advocacy organization . A successful passage of youth voting laws in New York that will take effect by July 1, 2024, has led the to offer guidance on the rollout.

Data from the shows that 18 is the standard voting age for many countries, although suffrage begins earlier in some places than others. Nicaragua, Cuba and Austria provide universal suffrage starting at age 16. Estonia and Germany allow 16-year-olds to vote in some local and state elections. If you’re 16 and employed, you can vote in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Argentina and Brazil up the ante by requiring citizens ages 18 to 70 to vote in elections or face fines and penalties — but 16- and 17 year-olds can voluntarily vote, too.

At the March 26 hearing of Felix’s bill in the House Committee on State Government and Elections, two Republicans and one Democrat were unconvinced. Rep. Brian Newberry, a Smithfield Republican, worried about students having say over municipal bodies who make budgetary decisions.

Rep. Patricia Morgan argued against 16-year-olds’ mental readiness to vote. “At the age of 16, they really are not adults,” said Morgan, a West Warwick Republican. “And they don’t have that capacity. As much as whatever, you know, research you got, it’s just not true.”

Rep. Arthur Corvese, a North Providence Democrat, was more specific in his criticism: “I don’t buy that the same individuals who would support allowing teenage and young adult murderers to either get out of jail or have a reduced sentence because of their inability to understand what they did — but you want 16-year-olds to vote in elections? I’m sorry.”

Felix told Corvese that cognitive processes involved in crime and voting are hardly the same. Comparing impulse decisions like crime is entirely different from the decision making they would use at the ballot box, she suggested.

“The research has shown that youth, when it comes to non-impulsive behavior, they’re just as rational as adults,” Felix said. “It’s astonishing to me to hear folks talk about that.”

The Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore supports the legislation, offering a few reasons why youth voting is worth considering.

“Ultimately, we believe that our youth should be directly engaged in their communities and in the democratic systems and structures that govern them so that they become lifelong citizens and active participants in our democracy,” Amore wrote in a submitted in support of Felix’s bill.

Potential issues with the bill involved ballot preparation and implementation, but Amore noted his office would be happy to help tweak the law and make it more logistically viable.

Both Felix’s bill and Mack’s have been held for further study since their respective hearings in House and Senate committees.

Larry Berman and Greg Paré, spokespeople for the House and Senate respectively, offered a statement via email.

“These bills were heard in their respective Senate and House committees earlier this session,” they wrote. “The Senate President and Speaker will be reviewing the testimony and communicating with the chairpersons as part of the normal committee review process.”

This is the second year Rhode Island’s General Assembly has seen this legislation, said Mary-Murphy Walsh, the president of the Young Democrats of Rhode Island. But the idea is still young.

“I think next year might be easier considering all the other priorities that the legislature has,” Felix said.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com. Follow Rhode Island Current on and .

Conducted by , “Our Power, Our Legacy,” , was commissioned by to identify what priorities Black women identify as critical for future economic success after the .

“I want to turn and ask Black mothers, what do they need, and how can we better engage them more authentically in co-architecting solutions?” said Gabrielle Wyatt, who founded the Highland Project in 2020. About 89 percent of Black mothers surveyed say reaching educational goals is a key measure of success; while 85 percent say improving K-12 education is the top priority.

The report’s sample is geographically representative, with 27 percent of respondents having children under 18; 32 percent holding a higher education degree; and 38 percent married or partnered.

The findings will inform programming for The Highland Project’s and advocacy plans for their local partners, including the education-focused in Indianapolis. Wyatt, Newark Schools’ former chief of strategy, created the nonprofit Highland Project as a coalition of Black women leaders aimed at closing the racial wealth gap via systems-level change.

Wyatt told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ that The Highland Project’s mission was born out of a belief that wealth provides opportunity — to things like home ownership and rainy day funds — yet economic solutions alone cannot solve the racial wealth gap.

“I think about — our lives and our bodies to be protected and need to be thriving. We need access to incredible health care,” said Wyatt. “We need access to great and nutritious foods. We need access to a community policing model
 We also need access to great and incredible schools. When we say wealth, we need to be thinking about pulling multiple policy levers in order to get there.”

Here are three of the survey’s key findings and their implications for education policy:

1. Black women worry about children’s education more than anything else

Fifty-nine percent of Black women say the issue most frequently on their mind — more concerning than retirement savings, healthcare costs, and losing their job — is whether their child or the children around them are “getting a good enough education.”

Quality education for the younger generation was the most frequently cited worry among .

The ability to afford higher education is a top concern for 47 percent, as well. College access and affordability is of greater concern for single Black women across age groups — 55 percent fear that they won’t be able to afford higher education for themselves or a family member.

. One year after graduating from 4-year institutions, Black women owe an average of $8,000 more than their white peers, likely due to compounding factors: generational wealth and a family’s ability to contribute to college costs, access to employment and wage gaps.

“What we have seen and what we have heard, as a culture, is that college is supposed to be the thing that closes the wealth gap for us, with our white peers, and what we’re seeing now is the opposite happening,” Wyatt said. “We’re in an urgent state of affairs in terms of addressing the student debt crisis, and continuing to kick the can on this, via the extension of loan payment relief, isn’t going to get us there.”

The report recommends eliminating student debt, calling it a “crippling barrier to wealth building.”

2. Lack of educational opportunities is a top barrier to economic success for Black women

About 21 percent of Black women cite lack of educational opportunities as a key hurdle to economic success, and more than a quarter of Black women with college degrees believe so. Racial discrimination and lack of job opportunities were the other most frequently chosen hurdles.

The barriers align with the reports’ central finding of what priorities Black women want leaders to focus on: voting rights, racial discrimination, and access to quality education.

Wyatt told ĂÛÌÒÓ°ÊÓ that the lack of diversity in educational leadership may be part of why Black women aren’t accessing more educational opportunities. Nationally, of the public school population are Black students yet are Black teachers and about three percent of superintendents are Black women.

To promote academic and social opportunities, education advocates and suggest strengthening the teacher and leadership pipeline to better represent students.

“The federal dollars that are at play right now offer huge opportunities for districts to help improve teacher diversity in particular, from recruiting and hiring, to setting up mentorship programs to encourage students of color to become teachers,” Wyatt said.

3. Black women say the ability to pursue educational goals is a key measure of overall success

An overwhelming majority of Black women define success in ways that affect their quality of life beyond financial means. Eighty-five percent say that pursuing educational goals is one key way they look at success.

Educational opportunity and attainment is more important to Black womens’ perceived success than a high-paying job (82 percent), owning a home or raising kids (81 percent).

For Wyatt, these findings are another indicator that leaders must look to education policy to ameliorate racial inequities, particularly as more data is released from pandemic-era learning.

“We know that and we know that students are learning at different rates,” said Wyatt, “and for me that means that we differentiated solutions that are rooted deeply in community voice, deeply in evidence and deeply with equity and justice as our Northstar.”

Other notable findings

• 83 percent say college needs to be made more affordable
• 88 percent say they will likely vote during midterm elections
• 78 percent say quality day care needs to be made more affordable