My 17-year-old son told me this morning he donated $10 to Bernie's campaign
Based on our general discussions, I suspected he was a progressive, but was pleasantly surprised when I learned of his donation. I told him Bernie formally announced yesterday and he said he knew as he watched the video of his speech. We talked about how Bernie addressed the major concerns facing our nation today including jobs, college tuition, income inequality, the environment, and the shrinking middle class.
He was concerned about his not being 18 when he made his donation and I said not-to-worry as he'll be 18 at the time of the 2016 election.
I also told him I was proud of him!
He's very knowledgeable when it comes to world affairs and I suspect he'll make a positive contribution to both his nation and community (but then, I might be a little biased!).
Oh, and when he asked me about my donation to Bernie, I told him I'll making making one tomorrow as I wanted to wait until payday. 
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When my daughter was 16yo and taking AP Gov't and Politics in high school, she had to volunteer for some campaign - local or national. She chosen Obama/Biden. I had never volunteered before. Because I felt so strongly about the election, she was able to talk me into doing it with her.
This time it will be her brother who is in AP GoPo. He'll be the one making the choice as to where he wants to volunteer, but I'm hoping he'll choose the Presidential campaign and I'm hoping it's Bernie 
Of course, after today's referendum vote in our school district, I'm thinking we need someone new in County Council that will push for property value reassessment. As a student, if we had someone worthy running, he might be interested in helping with that campaign. We haven't had an assessment adjustment since 1983 and the local schools are paying dearly for it.
Sorry to read of your schools' situation. We've had several school districts end school earlier this semester because of Brownback's tax fiasco.
Two school districts, Concordia Unified School District and Twin Valley Unified School District, announced earlier this month that they would end the year early because they lacked the funds to keep the schools open. This week, four more districts confirmed they would also shorten their calendars, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
The four newly reported closings are in the unified school districts of Smoky Valley, Haven, Skyline and Shawnee Heights. The Capital-Journal reports that most Kansas schools already exceed the required minimum number of school days, so they can afford to cut a few days without violating state law.
Still, the decision to cut days was a painful one for school districts, judging from an announcement posted by the Twin Valley school board in late March, just days after Brownback signed a bill cutting $51 million in school funding for the current year. "The Twin Valley Board of Education made a difficult decision and has approved a change in the last day of school," the board wrote. "This decision was based on the financial plight of the district. The district has few fiscal reserves to endure the present mid year unplanned financial cuts recently signed into law."
Huffington Post
But when the world headquarters for Koch Industries is located in Wichita, you gotta wonder who really has the governor's ear...
Thanks! 
I'm really optimistic about 2016!
I'll pass the word on.
Speaking of t-shirts, I discovered a couple of weeks ago that my son had ordered one from a company that makes customized t-shirts. I asked him about it and he told me it was in support of a fellow classmate who was elected to be senior-class president for next year (my son just finished his junior year). The "president-elect" is well-liked and active in school, however, his GPA wasn't high enough so his election win was nullified by a couple of the teachers overlooking the election. This angered several of the soon-to-be-seniors, including my son.
So he designed a t-shirt in his digital-media class that had a picture of the winner and his name followed by "...is my President," and ordered a prototype (it was really nicely done!) My son got a group of fellow students interested in buying these t-shirts to wear next year, so he'll has been "taking orders" for a larger purchase..
I asked him if he'd given any thought on how the school administration might react if students started wearing these t-shirts to school, and he said he had that covered. He included an image of the American flag in the design so any attempt to censor it would be considered "anti-American." He explained it as the "Patriot Act defense" (I detected sarcasm and irony in his explanation), so we'll wait and see.
But I agree: He's a "a kind and intelligent kid." (I sometimes check his birth certificate to make certain he's my son!). I appreciate the compliment!
for both you and your son! He made an excellent, extremely intelligent decision which hopefully will be a good investment in his and his generation's future!
Here's a pic of some more smart young people for Bernie:
https://instagram.com/p/3OpnW7mdFh/
