There is a flaw in our system of voting. A flaw that has caused the #RedforEd movement to be necessary, and impacts every individual within the Perry High campus. That flaw, is that school students, aren’t a force that can influence politics, when politics, is the biggest force and influence on them. Politics decide how much our schools are funded. What kinds of technology we get access to, the different books we get to read, how much our teachers are paid, how many teachers we even get to have. Politics, politicians, and most importantly, voting citizens of Arizona, decide the fate of our education. In the last midterm election, the elections that decide the most when it comes to changes within the state, roughly one million five hundred thousand individuals voted, translating too just over a million people deciding what politicians will represent them and make decisions that are best in their favor.

Because that is how politics works, everyone gets a ballot, and votes for the person that they want to represent them, they vote for the person that will get lower taxes, or make sure that the roads are paved. But the roughly 2-million children currently within school, don’t get to pick anyone to represent them, or to do what is best for their education, we must rely on those who can vote, our parents, our teachers, our staff. To make sure that what is so vital to our lives and futures stay open.

If to say someone’s job was to be a coal miner, and had no kids of their own, but even if they did have kids. Voting for a candidate who supported schools would be little more than a moral decision; there is no true impact to someone who is already out of school on how much schools are funded, other than the raising of their taxes or the intelligence of their kids, taxes being something that can be felt instantly, and education being an effect that only slowly comes to fruition over time.

Yet within this past midterm, we have been able to witness something of a peculiar standing. As unlike ever before, politicians talk about education more than just a simple nod at how schools need more funding, but Gov. Doug Ducey and company talked on plans, what they have done or what they will do. The reason for the sudden focus on the children and funding has become all too transparent with time. This sudden focus on education is a symptom of the #RedForEd movement and the state-wide public support it received last spring.

Teachers, students, and supporters, marching in the streets for what they felt was right got the attention of our legislature, and we saw that in their mid-term advertising.

What the #RedForEd movement has done is brought attention to the subject that teachers, students, and faculty must deal with in everyday life: the status of our schools. It has turned the people who can vote – the true voices that the politicians listen to – and now look at schools as more than just a free government daycare, but as something that deserves there ballot. It will be interesting to see how with so many new lawmakers in office, if things will continue to improve for Arizona schools or if this was all just a ploy to win an election.