Students need to not only vote in November but make an educated vote.

Most people remember the big “Vote or Die” campaign a few years ago where celebrities, from all walks of life, were stressing the importance of the younger generation going out to vote.

It worked; it was recorded that election year more people in the 18-25 year age group casted votes compared to the previous election year.

We propose something similar, but just voting isn’t enough, you need to be knowledgeable on what you are voting on.

It’s not too difficult to watch a few minutes of news to see what the candidates are talking about, or an even easier option is to YouTube some of the speeches.

You can find the majority, if not all, of the speeches given at the Democratic and Republican Conventions on the Internet.

Education is a hot topic right now; see where Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama stand with it.

Do what they think match with what you want to see happen?

Something else that will really affect Cerritos College and schools all over California is Proposition 30.

Prop 30 will raise taxes; most likely you are thinking, “Why would I vote yes on that?”

But that’s exactly why you need to make an educated vote.

If Prop 30 doesn’t pass, the Cerritos College budget, along with schools all over California will get cut even more.

Read the proposition and figure out what is most important to you.

Maybe it’s keeping the money in your own pocket.

Whatever it is, an informed decision will always be better than an uninformed one.

Don’t just read that particular proposition, read all of them; every one of them is going to affect you in some way.

You can’t let the older generation decide everything, we all have to live with it so we all should have a say in what is done.

Talk to people, see what they think about what’s going on and how it will affect things.

Granted not everyone you talk to is going to have solid information, so make sure what you hear checks out to be the truth before deciding to vote based on what someone else says, but they could be able to help you look at things in a way that you might not have thought about.

This is college; we are now a part of the adult world. That might be a scary though for some of you, but it’s time to start acting like it.

Part of that is helping to mold this country and steer it into a world that you will be proud to grow old in.