Whether they are city council members in your hometown or senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., it is the job of elected officials to make the government run efficiently and effectively for their constituents.
Elected officials spearhead new programs to affect change in their communities and districts. They can take a concern of their constituents and relay it to the larger government body, leading to improvements in services and government operations. But how can they do this if they don’t know what your concerns are?
Just as it is part of every politician’s duty to represent his or her constituents in providing essential government services, it is also your duty to make your representatives aware of problems and concerns that exist in your community, areas that are in need of improvements, issues they might not notice from behind their office desk. What are some ways in which you can communicate with your elected officials and those seeking to hold public office? How are some ways you can find out which issues are most important to you and the community? Check a the.News video report that shows how students in Philadelphia discussed their concerns and how to make them known to candidates running for mayor of their city.
Know Your Issue, Know Your Officials
The first step towards communicating your views with those in office is to stay informed. You can keep track of what is going on in your city by following stories in the news, either through the Student Voices news page or your local daily or weekly newspaper. Don’t just use one news source; read multiple viewpoints on the same issue to make sure you have a well-rounded perspective. Follow current developments, debate your concerns with classmates, and make sure you are well-informed when it comes time to raise the issues with your elected officials or candidates for office.
The next step is finding out which elected office handles the issue you’ve identified. Federal, state and local governments all operate with different scopes of work and have different responsibilities for different issues. It is your job to figure out who can help. For example, if you want a pothole on your street fixed, you shouldn’t call your U.S. congressmen, rather, you should contact your local council member. If you are concerned about social security reform, you shouldn’t talk to your mayor, rather contact your federal representative.
The federal government handles enforcement of the broadest laws that affect everyone in the United States - such as the national minimum wage. Beyond that, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution leaves subsequent duties to state and local governments. Anything that is not governed by the federal government falls upon state and local governments. State governments might focus on things that affect everybody in a single state – maintenance of state transit systems, for example – while local governments handle issues that only affect a single city or municipality, like local police forces.
Once you’ve determined which level office handles your problem, find their contact information. Click here to find your federal elected officials. Click here to find your local elected officials.
Canidadates and how to contact them
If it is an election year, you might find your officials very willing to talk about your views – and you might find a host of other candidates to talk with as well.
When a council member, member of Congress, or any government official is preparing to appear on the ballot for reelection, they will typically take pains to make the public aware of their stances on the issues, in order to secure your vote. Likewise, their opponents will want to make their stances known as well. In elections where an official has reached the end of his or her term, a roster of all new candidates will be running for the seat; these candidates are often very active, trying to build name recognition with potential voters.
This is a perfect opportunity for you to approach politicians – whether they’re incumbents (those already in office) or challengers to talk about your issue. In this age of the Internet, candidates usually maintain thorough campaign websites which you can use not only to learn about their policy stances and views on the issues, but also to seek out their contact information and pose questions to them.
The class at Philadelphia’s Edison High School did just that in 2007, when five candidates competed in the city’s democratic primary to vie to become the next mayor of Philadelphia.
Through classroom discussion, the students debated current events and issues in their neighborhood. They also read stories and talked in an online web dialogue with newsroom staffers at the Philadelphia Daily News. They were able ultimately to focus their concerns into a single, specific issue: improvement of city parks to offer an alternative to crime. (Watch a video of the Edison class debating the issues here.) Once they reached that point, it was time to take their concerns to the officials.
Sharing Your Views with Policymakers
There are a number of ways you can share your views with those in office at the local, state and federal levels. Locally, you can attend a town meeting or even schedule an office visit. At the state and federal level, you can write letters to your representatives or send opinion pieces to newspapers. At every level, you can work to invite your elected officials to visit your school and talk about the issue with your fellow students. If you are interested in doing this, talk with your teacher about setting up a classroom visit. There are invitation letter templates and instructions available from Student Voices to help you with this process.
Town meetings
The most direct contact you will have with elected officials is at the local level, where you can attend the meetings of your city council, borough council, board of commissioners or board of supervisors. These are all different titles for the body of elected officials that governs your town.
The meetings usually occur on a regular basis and are open to the public. Often, you can find an agenda of the meetings posted online or available if you call their offices. This is important because if your issue is already on the docket, they will likely be discussing – or even debating solutions – to your concerns already! In some meetings, the council will vote on action items that directly address issues raised by the members themselves or the public. Through these votes, they institute new ordinances or other changes to local policy that have a direct impact you. Commonly, votes on specific issues take place only after the public has had a chance to speak out about the issue at the meetings. If you want to make your comments heard by the elected officials, this is your chance – sign up to speak and let them know your concerns!
You can attend these meetings and share your opinions, even if you are not old enough to vote. Arrive early, listen attentively, and when it comes your turn to speak, keep your argument focused on the major points and, above all, be respectful of your elected officials.
Writing letters
While state and federal officials also meet to hold debates and vote on new laws, these are much bigger gatherings not as easily accessible. However, this does not mean that you should let officials at this level off the hook from hearing what you have to say about the issues.
For state and federal officials, you can write letters explaining your views on an issue that concerns you. Compose your thoughts into a brief, formal argument addressed to your elected official. Explain how the issue affects you and offer suggestions on how your representative can help. Use the contact information you found earlier and send the letter to your official, either through e-mail or through postal mail, directed towards their office. Federal representatives usually keep multiple offices – one in Washington, D.C. and a few across their district at home – so it’s best to send your letter to their main address in Washington.
Once you’ve done this, you can even get your argument out there for the public to see. Newspapers always have a “Letters to the Editor” section where they run short letters from readers voicing their opinions on topics of concern. These run in the Opinion section. Check that section out for instructions on how to submit a Letter to the Editor. Using the same argument you sent to your elected official, write a new letter, this time addressed to the editor of your paper, and see if it gets published! Read here for more information on using the media to address your concerns, including how some students in Dallas were able to get a regular section of their city’s newspaper devoted to their perspectives.
Invite officials and candidates to your school
Candidates and elected officials are often willing to visit personally with their constituents, and often, that can mean a visit to your school to discuss the issues with your and your classmates. To invite officials or candidates (or sometime their spokespeople) to your school, work with your teacher to first send a written invitation to their district or campaign offices. Follow-up with phone calls and be willing to work with their busy schedules. For help on setting up visits, Student Voices has templates and checklists to assist available on the website.
If a candidate is unable to visit your school due to their campaign schedule, it doesn’t mean you won’t be able to ask them their views on your issue. Election cycles almost always include numerous debates, events where all those running for a certain elected position – such as mayor – meet and debate their views on certain issues. The Philadelphia class was able to submit their question about city parks to the mayoral forum, where it was posed to all of the mayoral candidates.
Engage your officials or candidates in dialogue, be focused and respectful as if you were at the community meeting, and see if you can get them to listen and make change!
What do you think?
Which way do you feel is best to get elected officials and candidates to listen to your views? How do the responses of candidates affect the way you view them? Which issues would you like to talk to your officials about? Have you had experience talking with a public official or candidate for office? What was it like?
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