Get involved and then tell us about it! You have a voice in the future of your community, your state and your country, so use it. You can do a community service project to clean up a park, plan a protest, start a petition, visit your Congressman, or run for student government. Each month we will feature one or two of the best new projects.
Ninth-grade social studies students from Lincoln East High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, are making good use of lessons learned in the classroom. Through their participation in We the People: Project Citizen, the class was introduced to the public policymaking process. Teacher Tim Bayne taught his students not only the basics of how a bill becomes a law. His freshman class learned how average, engaged citizens as members of civil society have the capacity to influence lawmakers and help implement policy—even those not yet old enough to vote.
The class focused their efforts on improving state safety standards for school bus drivers. After witnessing a charter bus driver using his cell phone while transporting students, some of Bayne’s students learned that no law existed to ban the unsafe practice. The class had found their cause.
After identifying a local problem and drafting a public policy solution, an integral part of the Project Citizen process is building a coalition of community supporters. With the help of their teacher, the students did just that. State Senator Richard Pahls of Omaha, having learned of their efforts, sponsored a bill to the Nebraska State Legislature to prohibit the use of cell phones for bus drivers transporting students. The proposed bill met resistance by some members of the legislature upon initial introduction, but students Brittany Gondringer and Neeka Choobineh, now sophomores, recently testified before the Nebraska legislature’s Transportation and Telecommunications Committee to cite their research and make the case for the new policy. The bill is slated to be signed into law thanks in no small part to the dedicated efforts of these civic-minded students.