A teen suffrage movement is underway in Howard County following several academic years hampered by bus transportation problems, redistricting fights and budget cuts.

Frustrated with the decisions of adults, teens successfully lobbied state lawmakers to take up their cause this session. A bill proposed by Del. Natalie Ziegler would give the Board of Education’s only student member the right to vote on the school system’s budget, which totaled about $1.21 billion this fiscal year.

Another bill, proposed by Del. Jen Terrasa, goes a step further, lowering the voting age in the county’s school board races to 16.

Together, the proposed bills, would expand students’ influence on the eight-member board that governs the education of about 57,000 children. They come at a time when Howard County leaders are bracing for another difficult budget season as the school system faces a funding shortfall.

Teens such as Gavin Falcón, a Long Reach High School junior who pushed for the bills, say students need more representation on such matters. Anything less is “performative.”

“My parents say ‘talk is cheap,’” said Falcón, who serves as president of the Howard County Association of Student Councils. “We’re saying we care about student voices, but not really.”

Student voting rights have become a perennial issue for Howard County since the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, the board’s seven adult members deadlocked on major decisions — leaving the student member to cast a tie-breaking vote that kept school buildings closed. The fallout was so contentious that then-Superintendent Michael Martirano publicly defended the student against what he called “unconscionable acts of bullying by adults.”

Two parents later filed a lawsuit arguing that votes cast by minors violated the Maryland constitution, but the case concluded in the school system’s favor. Maryland’s highest court ruled that the General Assembly has the authority to establish school board member qualifications and the manner in which they are selected.

Over the years, the General Assembly typically approved changes to a local school board that came with the full support of the county’s lawmakers, resulting in a lot of variation across the state’s 24 jurisdictions.

In Howard County, voters elect adult members to represent each of the five councilmanic districts and two at-large members, all of whom serve four-year terms. Middle and high schoolers are also permitted to elect their representative, usually a junior or senior, to a one-year term. The student member can vote on some decisions, but not those related to contracts, collective bargaining agreements, disciplinary disputes and the budget.

Young people in some other parts of Maryland already have the voting rights that Howard County teens are seeking. In neighboring Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties, student board members enjoy full voting rights. The city of Takoma Park also reported a boom in voter turnout in 2013 after the city lowered the voting age for municipal elections to 16.

To Ziegler, who represents Howard and Montgomery counties, both bills to expand teen voting rights have merit. The Democrat said she doesn’t believe there’s a greater risk of students choosing the wrong candidate for the wrong reasons than adults. And there’s no point to a student member voting on policy, she said, if they can’t vote on the budget that funds it.

“It’s a very bad civics lesson,” Ziegler said.

Other Howard leaders have reservations about the bills. Board of Education member Jackie McCoy said she strongly supports teaching young people how their local government works, but isn’t convinced that lowering the voting age or expanding the voting rights of the student member is the way to do it.

“I would rather spread responsibility to more students rather than giving power of voice ... to one student,” McCoy said. She suggested that more students should be allowed to sit on the board’s operating budget review committee.

Del. Chao Wu, who previously served on Howard’s school board, said he supports the student member voting on the budget but has concerns about lowering the voting age for elections. Doing so would effectively give students the ability to vote for two seats on the Board of Education while adults only vote for one, he said.

That’s already happening, said 16-year-old Sidaarth Karegowdra, a junior at River Hill High School. Maryland law allows 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections, including school board races, provided they will turn 18 on or before the general election.

Sidaarth’s own interest in civics was sparked when his family moved to the Columbia area in 2023. Neighbors were fired up about a plan to build a plastics recycling plant at the headquarters for a local chemical company, W.R. Grace & Co. Then budget constraints led a teacher, with whom Sidaarth had bonded, to leave her post.

Sidaarth and friends went on to co-found Illuminate Maryland, a student-led advocacy organization dedicated to boosting civic engagement.

In recent months, members of the group hosted a youth forum with candidates for Howard County executive and testified in favor of student voting rights at a hearing with lawmakers in December. Their presence came as a pleasant surprise to Falcón, who didn’t know other students were organizing to support the bills.

Sidaarth said students want more than a symbolic gesture from adults.

“We all see this as structural reform,” he said. “We’re not passive recipients.”