US Preschools starting students early on civics education [Video]

As lawmakers voted on a budget deal at the U.S. Capitol, a different kind of balloting was taking place a dozen miles away in a sun-filled Virginia preschool classroom. At stake: which animated dog was the best character on the cartoon “PAW Patrol.” In a heated primary, the 3-and-4-year-old students in room 14 at the ACCA Child Development Center had narrowed it down to two finalists: Chase, a German shepherd who wears a police uniform, and Skye, who wears a pink “pup pack” and is a favorite among girls in the class. The children cast votes by scrawling their names in crayon beneath pictures of the two characters. By mid-morning, it was a dead heat: five votes to five. Benejas Abeselome, 4, put his name down for Chase. “Police take bad guys,” Benejas said. “I wanted police because I like policing.”It will be years before these youngsters vote in a …