Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone because they may be able to vote soon.

At least in Newark, where the city council moved forward, a resolution that would allow 16 year olds to vote in their local school board elections.

It's not a new idea.

In fact, 16 year olds have this voting right in other states.

But as senior political correspondent David Cruz tells us, Newark is leading this effort here in New Jersey.

It looks like 2024 could end up being the year of the teenager in New Jersey.

Politics in the state legislature.

There's a move to allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries if they're 18 by Election Day.

18 is the legal voting age in New Jersey.

But in Newark this week, a first in the state measure that would empower 16 and 17 year olds to vote in school board elections, got unanimous support from the city council and the administration.

Mayor Baraka And the administration is fully supportive of that legislation.

We believe that the students in this city should have a right in how they are educated, in the manner in which the schools are run and their right to be involved in just intellectual process and civics in general.

The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice is working with several other groups to move the legislation forward.

Henal Patel is the law and policy director for the group.

She spoke in support of the measure this week, calling it an important countermeasure against forces that would curb access to the voting booth.

She says young people have been on the vanguard of social change.

We watched them voice their concerns on social media, in traditional media, on the streets.

They're out here talking about Black Lives Matter.

They're out here talking about gun violence.

They're out here talking about climate change and any number of other issues that they care about.

And we often watch them and we're like, oh, you know what?

It'll be great when they actually have a say here, but they can have a say.

With a budget of over $1,000,000,000.

You'd think the school board might attract more voter attention than the recent turnout of just over 3%.

Well, one councilperson says empowering 16 and 17 year olds, over 7000 of them enrolled in city schools should be just the start.

I don't have a problem looking at the possibility of engaging 16 and 17 year olds, but I think I also believe that if we're going to move in that direction, then we should also figure out ways to enable residents who are, you know, regardless of their status, who represent the majority of these this there's no population that encompasses our Newark public schools, a voice in the process.

And let's look at municipal elections.

We do have a large percentage of legal residents who may not be citizens yet.

Other cities around the country have enabled and allowed those individuals to participate in municipal elections.

And that's something that I want us to look at as well.

Ramos says he also supports making the current student member of the Board of Ed a full voting member, which is not the case right now.

The current ordinance will have a second hearing and vote early next month.

If adopted, it could be in place for the April school elections.

I'm David Cruz.

NJ Spotlight News.