Modeling Congress
Dear Families,
On Saturday, April 24, 11 middle schoolers participated in the 21st Packer Collegiate Middle School Model Congress. This year’s participants included sixth grader Kai, seventh graders Benjamin, Georgia, Jerel, Marcelo, Nicholas, Odelia, Olivia, Simmon and eighth graders Danica and Jasper. The group has worked with faculty facilitator Sharyn Hahn since the end of October to write bills, prepare speeches, read students’ bills from the other schools that participate, and learn about and practice parliamentary procedure. The team spent the entire day at Packer Collegiate High School on the 24th for the annual culminating event.
Nearly 200 middle school students from 13 area independent schools, including LREI, sent delegations of model legislators to the event. When students arrived at the event, they broke off into one of 17 separate committees based upon the content of their bill. These committees were meant to resemble actual congressional committees and included among others Judiciary, Education, Health, Housing & Urban Affairs, and Science Space & Technology. After a morning committee session filled with heated debate and criticism, the bills that passed committee were reviewed in one of four full sessions. (House I, House II, Senate I and Senate II).
The bills introduced by the LREI delegation included the following:
- Delegates: Danica and Jasper
Title: An act to reduce pollution in the United States by charging small fees based on large companies’ carbon footprints.
Preamble: By fining companies for their neglect toward the environment, we can create a healthier, stronger, greener nation. - Delegates: Olivia and Odelia
Title: An act to ensure the health and well-being of shelter pets and to make pet adoption and care-taking more affordable for all families, especially those for whom this would be a financial hardship.
Preamble: To enable all families, including those with financial limitations, to adopt and/or care for a pet, when the animals would otherwise be kept in an unstable and unsafe environment. - Delegates: Simmon, Jerel, and Georgia
Title: An act to prevent the New York City MTA from ceasing to provide students with free student metro cards to travel to and from school, and to institute this practice in other metropolitan areas in the United States that do not already provide this service.
Preamble: The intent of this bill is to have the MTA continue to provide funding that will defray the full cost of student metro cards so that both public school and private school students who must travel over a mile can do so free of charge and to incorporate this in other cities. - Delegates: Nicholas and Kai
Title: An act to make all restaurants in The United States display the correct calorie value and all the ingredients that go into their food on their menu in clearly visible type.
Preamble: The purpose of this bill is to allow everyone to see clearly the nutritional value of a prepared meal at the restaurant. - Delegates: Benjamin and Marcelo
Title: An act to create cleaner and more efficient public transportation systems in metropolitan areas.
Preamble: The purpose of this act is to ensure that public transportation systems all over the Unites States would become more efficient in order to transport more people, as wells as reduce the use of fossil fuel emitting vehicles. After this act is initiated it will create a safe and stable atmosphere for public transportation riders. This act will also ensure that public transportation systems are sanitary and are not harmful to their customers.
The students’ hard work throughout the year resulted in a day of excitement and accomplishment. All 11 of our delegates participated in all of the sessions and several debated in the plenary committees. 4 of our 5 bills were passed in their committees.
The afternoon concluded with an Awards Ceremony in which all of the delegates were recognized for their the hard work and performance. In addition, special awards were given out to the best prepared and most “professional” delegates. At the ceremony, Marcelo was awarded Honorable Mentions. All of the delegates had a good time and they are all looking forward to next year with their eyes on the coveted Golden Gavel award (of which we have won two over the past five years). We are very proud of all of the delegates for their commitment to the Model Congress program.