Voter drive using kids draws fire

This story has been posted on a variety of sites, including Instapundit where Ann Althouse is still guest blogging. The questions being raised in other sites are the partisan concerns of the sponsoring group.

My question is: "What are we teaching - or not teaching these kids? One thing I fear is that we're teaching them the 'act' of voting is enough. Shouldn't we teach them their responsibility to understand what it they are voting for? Story:

"Students are going door to door and using phone banks to call homes urging citizens to register to vote and to remind them where the polling places are. On election day, hundreds of students plan to go out into the community to induce people to go to the polls.

Ringing doorbells in Ward 231 in Milwaukee's far south side on Tuesday morning, Trenise Johnson, 11, and a dozen of her classmates at Wisconsin Conservatory of Lifelong Learning, missed a variety of classes, including science, math and reading.

'This is fun,' she said, skipping from door to door."

It seems that they're also 'skipping' school!

As for the 'partisan question, at least one person quoted doesn't think there's any question:

Likewise, Georgia Duerst-Lahti, chairman of the political science department at Beloit College, said she finds merit in the program, but she wishes the people at Wisconsin Citizen Action would not "pretend they are not partisan."

"It's a liberal, lefty kind of group, and everyone knows it," she said.

Any get-out-the-vote effort, especially in urban areas, is likely to help the Democrats, said Duerst-Lahti.

"There is absolutely a partisan aim here," she said.

UPDATE (10/28/2004): MPS pulls the plug on students particpating in voter canvassing activities.