• By CHANTE DIONNE WARREN
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 9, 2008 - Page: 1E - UPDATED: 12:10 a.m.

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William Wallace, 13, hopes the next presidential leader can bring home the troops from Iraq and help resolve the overseas conflict soon.

Wallace and other McKinley Middle School eighth-grade students in Jessica Dehart’s Louisiana history class are talking about issues facing the nation’s next U.S. president and how those issues affect them.

Students are also learning about the electoral process, thanks to the Secretary of State’s Road to the White House election journal program.

Wallace also wants the Iraq  war to end so that a cousin stationed there can return home safely, he said. His classroom research has helped him decide that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is the man who can accomplish that, he said.

McKinley Middle seventh- and eighth-graders are the first ones in East Baton Rouge Parish to use the curriculum. St. Joseph’s Academy adopted it, and other schools throughout the state are also using the program, said Memory Seymour, who created and designed the interactive program and curriculum for students and teachers.

Students started following caucuses and primaries last school year, recording their observations in comparison charts, evaluations, and in online journals, she said.

“This is the peak time for teachers and students to utilize the program to track what is going to be a very important race,” said Secretary of State Jay Dardenne.

Dardenne’s program was featured as an innovative outreach program at the National Association of Secretaries of State conference in Michigan in July, he said.

A computerized election journal allows students to follow the 2008 elections by entering information about parties and candidates and to chart the results of state primaries and caucuses.

Students also get a look at the pre-election process from political parties, voter registration, choosing a candidate, platforms, qualifying forms, budgets, election speech guidelines and campaign speeches.

Issues on students’ minds included war, education, gas prices, taxes and health care.

“When you watch these debates, listen for these issues to be discussed and the one important to you,” said Dehart.

Of the 27 students in Dehart’s class, 17 said they preferred presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Other students were either for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., or undecided.