Hello everyone!

This has been a post I’ve been wanting to write for a while, but I’d been debating on whether or not it was a good idea. Inspired by my recent Youth and Government conference, I figured I should just go for it and see if anyone’s interested. Today I’ll be sharing a few bill ideas/things I think would be good laws. Some of these I thought of, and some were debated in Youth and Government/brought up by other people. That being said, they are not exactly original and I’m sure you could easily find people advocating for most of these with a Google search- I’m mainly going off of my Youth and Government experience and personal beliefs.

• Preschool should be free – Preschool is a crucial step in education that right now the lower classes often can’t afford. When I was going into preschool, my grandma had to help my parents pay for it since they had just bought a house and were dealing with the budget adjustment. Education should not be for sale, especially not at such a young and fundamental age for developing knowledge.
• Cap the amount/percentage college tuition at public institutions can be increased – Even though state school tuition is much cheaper than private institutions on paper, there’s not always much financial aid given (a lot of private schools meet more demonstrated need for aid) and it’s still extremely pricey. Prices rise each year- college was soooo much cheaper when our parents went, but the quality of instruction is the same. There should be a limit on how much prices can increase, so that they can only rise to account for inflation.
• Increased vacation time – We need to be on board with European countries and other developed countries with this. Americans work so much and often only get two to three weeks vacation a year, if that. There should be a month or more paid leave in most, if not all jobs.
• Stoppage of funding for public institutions named after questionable/racist/etc. people – This was an interesting one brought up at Youth and Government. It’s pretty self-explanatory, but it would definitely be complicated and controversial to enforce. I assume most of these institutions would just rename themselves anyways, but I still think it would be an important message to send.
• Require a certain ratio of school counselors and psychologists to students – There are not enough counselors or school psychologists for students, and this is something I’ve witnessed first-hand. I know schools are severely underfunded so it would be difficult to find room in the budget for this, but it’s worth it to promote mental wellness and provide a support system for students.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about my political beliefs and types of theoretical legislation I would support. Don’t take this too seriously, it’s just some topics I found interesting from Youth and Government. If you’re into politics and/or debating, I would love to hear your personal opinions on these issues as well.

Brooke