Last Monday, September 18, seven Pleasant Valley High School students had the opportunity to travel to the state capitol in Des Moines to participate in a Mock Congress event held by the Iowa Youth Congress (IYC). These students, representing Iowa’s East Region, acted as members of the state’s House of Representatives. This House was made up of 51 high school students from across the state.
A few months ago, each region met to draft position statements, or bills, aiming to resolve issues the youth of Iowa face today. While at the capitol, each region came together to present their position statements in the House Chamber. Every bill was formally debated, following the debate format used by the Iowa House of Representatives. Members from every region then voted to pass or not pass each bill. Those that received a simple majority of 26 or more votes passed.
Position statements for which PV members advocated included: increased financial literacy in high schools, incentives for talented individuals in STEM fields to pursue careers in teaching, required mental health training for teachers and sexual assault awareness in high schools.
At the end of January next year, IYC will return to the capitol to lobby their passed bills to Iowa’s legislators in hopes that they will become real bills. Junior and first-year member, Alton Barber, says, “I hope we have at least one thing that finds success that helps our community and our state.” Getting a bill passed into law is a lengthy and difficult process, but IYC has been successful in the past and hopes to be successful again this time.
Sophomore and second-year member, Amulya Pillutla, stated that “Compared to last year’s conference there were definitely [fewer] people, but I think we were able to get through more discussions between groups.” She believes this resulted in more thorough conversation, strengthening the bills’ chances of being approved by Iowa’s state government. The primary reason bills fail to pass in Iowa’s House and Senate is funding. Discussions at the Mock Congress made sure to consider this when debating and revising their position statements. Some groups even went as far to include reasons why their ideas would gain bipartisan support in Congress.
Pleasant Valley students’ involvement in IYC shows how people of any age can enact big changes with lasting results, as well as how teens do have a voice in Iowa’s government.
