Republicans Turn to High Schools in Bid for Campaign Foot Soldiers

The state Republican Party has sent thousands of fliers to California’s public high schools recruiting students as campaign foot soldiers--a strategy that some education leaders criticized Friday as an effort to get schools to violate state education laws and insert themselves into partisan politics.

GOP members defended their “youth outreach” program as a lawful attempt to spur student involvement in the political system.

In a letter sent to nearly 4,000 high schools statewide, Assembly Republican Leader Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino) asked principals and history teachers to inform students about opportunities to walk precincts for Republicans. Student volunteers could receive GOP prizes such as T-shirts, sweatshirts and tickets to the Victory ’98 election night party, the letter and similar leaflets indicated.

“I would appreciate you presenting our program to each of your government/history teachers and posting our fliers for your students’ perusal,” Leonard wrote.

School officials said the Republicans’ tactics overstep appropriate boundaries between public schools and politics.

“It is bothersome to me that the state leader of the Republican Party would . . . send letters to high school principals and ask them to serve as recruiting agents for political operatives,” said Capistrano Unified Supt. Jim Fleming. “God, are they that desperate?”

State Rules Bar Political Activities

Under California education codes, public school officials are prohibited from engaging in political activities while on campus, said Ron Wenkart, an attorney with the county’s Department of Education.

The law states that “no school district or community college district funds, services, supplies or equipment be used for the purpose of urging the support or defeat of any ballot measure or candidate, including, but not limited to, any candidate for election to the governing board of the district.”

The education code does not prohibit politicians from asking for consideration from the schools; rather, it bars schools from working to advance one political side.

An official with the state Department of Education said the Republican mailer puts schools in an unfair predicament.

“Schools are being used as a conduit for partisan information,” said department spokesman Doug Stone. “School officials need to be as neutral as possible when they encourage their students to get involved in campaigns, but they can’t be directing students to one party over another.”

Republicans argue that they are not asking schools to endorse any candidate or measure. Rather, they added, they are requesting that teachers inform students about opportunities to work for a political party.

“We want schools to help us notify students that we’re seeking volunteers,” Leonard said. “We want to remind students of their civic duty to vote.”

Most high school students, however, are younger than 18 and ineligible to vote.

Thousands of letters and similar fliers targeting students were mailed statewide over the past three weeks to high schools, particularly those in districts with tight races for both state and congressional legislative seats, said Diane Eastman, the GOP volunteer director for Southern California.

“It’s just not appropriate to put pressure on high schools,” said Bob Mulholland, campaign advisor for the state Democratic Party. “They really went over the limit.”

Mulholland said his party usually avoids soliciting students through high schools. Instead, volunteers are usually enlisted through colleges or community groups. Dealing with minors is a delicate matter, he added.

“Schools have the responsibility to instill the value of participatory government,” said Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni (D-San Rafael), who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, “but to use schools as a vehicle to recruit volunteers for a particular party or a particular ideology is completely inappropriate.”

Eastman said her staff is very careful about obtaining parental consent before accepting a student volunteer. Most teenagers contact Republican campaign offices by phone or e-mail. They are then asked to fill out an application that includes parent contacts.

Since the mailers went out, an estimated two dozen teenagers from both public and private high schools in Southern California have called to become volunteers. Statewide figures have not been tabulated, Eastman said.

Responding to school officials’ concerns about the mailers, Eastman said: “We’re just sending this out. They are not obligated to respond to us. It’s not as though we are trying to evangelize students to become Republicans.”

But some teachers felt that the letter was asking them to engage in prohibited behavior.

“They sent it to me, asking me to commit a crime,” said Jim Corbett, a government teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo. “I would have expected it from some local bozo candidate not familiar with the law, not the state Republican leader.”

Taking Turns at Crying Foul

Brian Garland, the principal of Edison High School in Huntington Beach, said he found some merit to the partisan letter. He forwarded the materials to the social studies department chairman, but doesn’t know if students ever saw the GOP’s request for volunteers.

“I didn’t see it as a big, red flag letter to get kids to join the Republican Party,” Garland said. “If the intent was to brainwash, to convince young people to become involved in the Republican Party, then yeah, I don’t think it’s appropriate. [But] it’s nice for kids to be able to get involved.”

Among other races, the party targeted schools in the Santa Ana area, where Republican Assemblyman Jim Morrissey faces a strong challenge from Democrat Lou Correa; and in the Garden Grove-Buena Park area, where Kenneth Maddox, a Republican, faces Democrat Mike Matsuda for an open Assembly seat.

In past years, it has been Republicans crying foul at what they said were unlawful political activities in California schools by Democrats.

Republicans accused teachers of misusing school resources in 1996 to oppose Proposition 209, which ended affirmative action programs for college admissions. They repeated the charge in June, saying teachers were recruiting other teachers and using school newsletters to fight passage of Proposition 227, which ended most bilingual education programs.

During the election season, many local candidates often ask to speak at schools or disseminate campaign literature. Some instructors said they usually turn away all such offerings. Others said they make it available to their students along with materials from other political parties.

Times staff writer Liz Seymour contributed to this story.