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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (81354)	10/28/2004 8:34:14 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793916

MPS pulls plug on student canvassing Principals told to suspend get-out-vote effort By MEG KISSINGER mkissinger@journalsentinel.com Posted: Oct. 27, 2004 Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent William Andrekopoulos late Wednesday ordered all principals in his district to suspend any community canvassing by students, including the distribution of election literature. The move came after consultation with the city attorney following a day in which the district had received dozens of calls from people criticizing its involvement in a get-out-the-vote effort during school hours by hundreds of children, some as young as 11. The students' participation in the program was reported Wednesday in the Journal Sentinel. The program was administered at 33 MPS schools in conjunction with Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, a group whose parent organization has endorsed Sen. John Kerry for president. The project also includes three high schools in Madison and a high school in Racine. "There were too many variables associated with canvassing for the district to manage," said Roseann St. Aubin, MPS communications director. "The administration felt it had to take action to avoid the appearance of any impropriety." Larry Marx, co-executive director of Wisconsin Citizen Action and Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, called the superintendent's decision "extremely unfortunate." "The students are bearing the brunt of a decision based on political pressure that is being brought on the district," Marx said. "This is a project that the district should be proud of. It is outrageous that partisan pressure is brought to bear that is making kids suffer." Marx said he was not worried about how this would affect the group's plan to boost voter turnout. "It actually changes very little," said Marx. "We have 600 confirmed volunteers for next Tuesday. The only difference is that kids will be missing out on an experience that they were looking forward to." jsonline.com