Wisconsin students learn of dysfunctional political system

It started as a lesson to learn how laws are created in Wisconsin. And this group of students sure got a lesson, just not the one they were hoping for. Back in 2009, as a classroom exercise, a second-grade teacher in Pittsville, Wisconsin encouraged her students to take a stand on novelty lighters, which are legal in Wisconsin. But the students read in Weekly Reader about the dangers of children mistaking novelty lighters for toys and getting hurt. Their passion was cemented by the fact that a fellow student had died in a fire that may have been sparked by a lighter. So they worked with their Fire Chief, who traveled to Madison to argue in support of the student’s idea to ban toy lighters. Their effort was unsuccessful. So they tried again the next year, and the next year. This year, six years after their effort began, there was hope. The Senate approved the bill and the students hopes were raised. But it failed to make it out of the Assembly before the session ended, and has now died. Apparently, Assembly lawmakers were willing to vote for the legislation, but only if the vote came on a voice vote, and not a roll call vote. A roll call vote means the representative’s votes would be recorded. They would have to be on the record with their vote. They weren’t willing to do that, leading to the demise of the student’s pet project. But this is not a total loss. While students are disappointed, they got to discover, at such an early age, that our politics often gets in the way of progress…that some politicians are unwilling to stand by their vote. It seems these students have gotten quite a lesson in the way our political system works, or doesn’t.