As we all know, the race for the presidency, and more importantly, the race for each candidates respective parties nomination, is in full swing. With loud and flamboyant candidates hogging the spotlight (*Cough Cough Donald Trump*), and with new scandals being reveled almost every month, it is becoming harder and harder for the average American voter to keep up with who has the policies that align with their views. And harder still for the young high school students who have to juggle things like grades, homework, sports, clubs, and a dozen other things besides. And this brings up a question that we have seen before, and will definitely see again, “What should the voting age be?”

Though there are several different opinions on this topic, like people who say, “Until you pay taxes, you don’t get a say in how they are spent.” On the other side of the coin, there are people, like Emma Debono and Dennis Meaney on HeadCount.org, who say, “Teenagers spend more than half their day sitting in a class room, hearing about what their country is doing, what decisions their government is making, and how those decisions affect them, yet they don’t have an influential voice on those decisions.”

And while both sides of the argument have a valid point, I believe that teenagers do not have the responsibility to be partially accountable for who decides what to do with money that they didn’t pay. Most high school students already have many things on their mind, and low on the list of things to think about is voting, right after buying a pencil and right before cleaning their room.

And if minors are not thinking about voting, then they are not deciding about voting. This will lead to rash decisions due to being under informed. Also, their inexperience and immaturity will cause the student to be easily swayed by a powerful speech.

All this beside, the average human brain is not fully developed until 25 years of age, according to a NPR story released in 2011, “emerging science about brain development suggests that most people don’t reach full maturity until the age 25.” This could lead to irrational or poorly thought out decisions. We already see trends that reflect this data in the rising rates of insurance prices for teenage drivers. So if the insurance companies have figured it out, why has our government not?