225BatonRouge.com

Each spring, buses from all over Louisiana descend on the Capital City full of idealistic young minds in town to pitch their own bills to solve our state’s woes.

While adult lawmakers bicker and schmooze at the Capitol, Youth Legislature groups such as Hi-Y gather in Baton Rouge for mock legislative sessions, often revealing provocative and unprecedented ideas by school kids.

The students elect a governor and legislators, then they meet to debate and vote on bills they’ve drafted. They even appoint media to grill them. It’s like a real session, minus the steak lunches at Ruth’s Chris and cocktails at Sullivan’s.

Last year, one student authored a bill about switching to grass as a source of fuel. Monice Oliphant, YMCA’s youth and government state director, was stunned later that year when the Louisiana Legislature started debating that very topic.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, we heard that last year from the kids,’” Oliphant says.

Here are some bills passed at the recent Youth Legislature session in Baton Rouge.

COASTAL WINDMILLS

Sponsors: Andrew Walker and Brandon

Harper, Catholic High Hi-Y

The bill: Build windmills along the Louisiana coastline and, in doing so, push back the water in order to salvage and rebuild the Louisiana coast.

Catholic High students decided the answer to all our hurricane problems was to do as the Dutch do and build an intricate system of windmills to protect the coastline. The bill proposes once levees are completed, building our own Dutch-style windmills. How to pay for them? Cut the salaries of politicians, accept public donations and federal tax money.

TEST THE TEACHERS

Sponsors: Matthew Cobb and David Henderson, CE Byrd Hi-Y

The bill: Require all teachers in Louisiana to take an annual test in the subject they are teaching. Perhaps it was frustration with inept teachers that lead these Shreveport students to mandate an annual review system for educators. This bill would mandate teachers to take a test in their core subject matter. What happens to teachers who fail? They get placed on one-year probation before being allowed to take the test again.

GOING TO SCHOOL DISNEY-STYLE

Sponsors: Lauren Nyman and Katie Humphreys, University High Lab School Hi-Y

The bill: Create a monorail transit system.High school students would rather a Disney-style mass-transit system as opposed to old school buses. This bill proposes solving pollution, parking and transportation problems with a monorail system that runs around the city and cuts through at major intersections. Passengers pay $1.25 per ride, helping to recoup the cost.

A LIFE OF LONG WORKDAYS

Sponsor: Anna Wilkinson, CE Byrd Hi-Y

The bill: Abolish the death penalty in Louisiana. One of the most liberal bills to pass at the session revoked Louisiana’s death penalty. Are these kids all liberal bleeding heart? Not hardly. Students were not blindly saving the lives of convicts without providing a solution to overcrowded prisons. Their bill also calls for inmates to work 15-hour days to raise money to pay for their accommodations.

PENNY WISE

Sponsors: Ben Clark and Zach Tannenbaum, Newman High School Hi-Y

The bill: Require all snack machines in public facilities to accept pennies. The authors say it will help boost the state’s notoriously low-income, stating in Article I Section C, “The state of Illinois has a gross state product of approximately three-and-a-half times that of Louisiana. Currently, Illinois is also the only state with a similar penny law.” But the best part is the penalty for non-compliance—a flat fine of $100, to be paid in pennies.