Those running for seats on the Minneapolis Board of Education this year face daunting issues: Widening achievement gaps between students, schools being closed for declining enrollment and budget shortages are just a start. Voters want to know how those candidates are going to help more students succeed, with less.

So when Richard Mammen decided to run for one of the at-large seats on the board, he looked to an energetic but unlikely political pro to run his campaign: A 19-year-old who fled the public schools.

On Tuesday, David Gilbert-Pederson sat at a coffee shop in the Seward neighborhood, where he grew up, and plotted Mammen's strategy on a legal pad. There was literature to get out, signs to pound. At 5'2," with a boyish face and big grin, he looked much younger than the college students sitting nearby.

While most of his former classmates at South High School were enjoying a gorgeous summer day or getting ready to go off to college, Gilbert-Pederson was in the chase, and on message.

"This hasn't just been about Dick," he said with authority. "This is about the kids."

Gilbert-Pederson is one of the thousands of young foot soldiers across the political universe carrying the rucksacks of the political parties. In an age of distrust and anger over politics (and I think you can say this at just about any time), they are the ones who believe in the possibilities of public service. They have not become jaded by political subterfuge or disenfranchised by social stasis.

Yet.

Gilbert-Pederson was adopted from the Philippines when he was a baby. His father, a librarian, and mother, who works in the public schools, are good citizens who vote and volunteer but not political activists, he said. He joined his first political campaign at age 12, when he made signs for Paul Wellstone's U.S. Senate campaign. After Wellstone died in a plane crash, Gilbert-Pederson began showing up to stuff envelopes almost every day after school, and he's become somewhat of a fixture in DFL circles.

"He's a brilliant young man," said Mammen. "I take a lot of direction from David. Some people ask why a 60-year-old man would choose a 19-year-old campaign manager, but I see him as a very wise person."

As they drive around campaigning, Mammen talks to Gilbert-Pederson about his schooling, and why the young man decided to quit public school in his freshman year.

"Conventional school wasn't really a good fit for me," said Gilbert-Pederson. "I'm more hands-on, more people oriented. I'd get bored by class and wouldn't try very hard, and my grades weren't that great."

So he started home-school and got his General Educational Equivalent last June. He takes classes at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, but the school dropped his chosen field of study in urban recreation because of budget cuts.

Gilbert-Pederson said he signed up to work for Mammen, whom the DFL endorsed, because of the candidate's experience leading an alternative school for juvenile offenders, and working with kids who didn't fit -- like him.

"He's one of my best friends, and one of the people I trust most," said Gilbert-Pederson.

So what education advice has the young campaigner given to the candidate?

"I think public schools can do a better job of finding out how to take learning to individual students," he said. "They also need to better utilize their resources because with budget cuts schools are struggling to keep up and there isn't nearly enough one-to-one interaction."

Asked about his own political aspirations, the teenager showed strategic maturity by declining to offer any specifics, or rule anything out.

"Politics," he said, "fits my skill set."

jtevlin@startribune.com • 612-673-1702