Students take practice run for president
Seniors in Chris Young's U.S. government class at Peabody-Burns High School will be electing the country's next president this week. The class of 17 students represents the country and two of their number have won their party's nomination as presidential candidates.
Brett Bass of the Everlast Party and Jacob Wolf of the Flannel Party have selected running mates (Todd Woodruff and Andrew Topham, respectively), campaigned before the voters, and engaged in a spirited debate on the issues of their nation.
"The kids are to treat this exercise as a real election," said Young. "They do it all — create a party, nominate the candidates and campaign for them, select running mates, and decide which issues to run on.
"They see how it works," he added. "They are part of the whole process."
Bass and Wolf have approached the campaign trail with different styles. Bass has slogans for his campaign — "Everlast Party will fight for you" and "Vote B for P."
"We called it the Everlast Party because it is going to last a long time," he said.
Wolf has eschewed catchy slogans in his run for office. His party selected the name Flannel Party simply because they were in the throws of a local cold snap when they had to create a name.
"Flannel just seemed right," he said. "But there are no slogans. I am running on my reputation and knowledge."
Both young men have definite opinions about issues and neither is shy about expressing his opinion.
Bass thinks two issues important to the country are a clean environment and a better education system. He touts hybrid cars and improved conservation as part of his platform to help restore the environment.
And he thinks the education lobbyists have the funding formula backward. "Why take away funding as a punishment for poor performance?" he asked. "Punitive actions that take away resources don't help the scores get better. There should be consequences for low scores, but they shouldn't be tied to the money a school operates on."
Wolf has a plan to end the war in Iraq by opening relations with Iran and Syria. "Opening negotiations with Iraq's neighbors is a logical step," he contends. "Communicating is the answer. It goes a long way to easing the confrontations and the issues."
Asked to pick an issue with a more local flavor, Wolf expresses frustration with the new arena being planned for Wichita. "I don't think the people pushing it planned it very well and I don't think the voters had enough information to make an informed decision," he said. "Originally I thought it would be a good idea, but now I think it is going to bring nothing but problems.
"I think they need to figure out a way to vote again."
Both presidential candidates are from Burns. "I think that says a lot about the Burns community. Here we are in a class with 15 kids from Peabody and we end up as the candidates," said Wolf.
At press time Bass and Wolf were going head-to-head in a final debate before the country of voters. Bass planned to surprise Wolf with some debate issues, while Wolf said he was out to prove Bass doesn't know what he is talking about.
It would seem "Politics 101" is alive and well in Chris Young's classroom at Peabody-Burns High School.
