[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 54 (Friday, May 6, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 NATIONAL STUDENT/PARENT MOCK ELECTIONS

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, we are not accustomed to thinking of voter 
education as antiviolence education. But the stark realities and images 
of war-torn and disenfranchised people in other nations that are 
broadcast across our television screens and printed in our daily 
newspapers should leave us more grateful than ever for our own 
constitutional democracy, a form of government we all too often take 
for granted.
  Democracy is a means of non-violent resolution of conflict. While it 
vests power in the people, we exercise power with votes instead of with 
violence; ballots instead of bullets. We do not need a gun to be heard.
  We are not accustomed to thinking of voter education as antiviolence 
education. But democracy is, by definition, the nonviolent resolution 
of conflict. In a democracy, we choose votes instead of violence, 
ballots instead of bullets. We do not need a gun to be heard.
  Violence, psychologists tell us, is the tool of the powerless. It is 
a response to a sense of impotence--a rage against helplessness. The 
University of Colorado's formal evaluation of the 1992 National 
Student/Parent Mock Election found it reduced feelings of 
powerlessness. Participating students, also showed increases in:
  First, political decisionmaking ability;
  Second, informed involvement in current issues;
  Third, the belief that voting is important;
  Fourth, the belief that Social Studies classes are relevant; and
  Fifth, the discussion of political and election topics with parents.
  Time magazine has called the National Student/Parent Mock Election 
``the largest voter education project ever.'' I submit to my 
colleagues, it is also the largest antiviolence project ever. By 
encouraging interactions with parents, with public officials, with 
leading citizens, and by actively involving young Americans with the 
ideas and ideals, the commitment, the sense of purpose that is our 
beacon of hope to the world--by helping young voters be heard--the 
National Student/Parent Mock Election works to steer American youth 
away from the delinquent and destructive behaviors of the powerless.
  I urge my colleagues to give of themselves to the Nation's youth by 
actively participating. I urge you to serve as role models for young 
people and help their teachers teach the full meaning of democracy. I 
urge you to roll up your sleeves and go to work. Speak before groups of 
these young voters of the 21st century. Debate with them. Answer their 
questions, encourage their participation in campaigns, and you will be 
encouraging the commitment, the attachment, the bonding that allows our 
young people to grow into proud, productive Americans. Start by writing 
to every superintendent in your State or district, as I have done 
through the years, urging them to involve their students in this highly 
successful voter education projects. Help them to understand how voter 
education is also anti-violence education, how they can not only 
strengthen our democracy for the future but contribute to our domestic 
tranquillity today. I urge teachers and students and parents all across 
America to get involved. There is no more important lesson to be taught 
in today's America than the lesson our forefathers taught us over 200 
years ago--the lesson of democracy. For each generation must create its 
democracy anew.

  Over 5 million American students and parents in all 50 States, 
Washington, DC., and overseas--Germany, England, Scotland, Italy, 
Portugal, Bahrain, France, Holland, Japan, Korea, the Marshall Islands, 
Guam, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico--participated in the 1992 
National Student/Parent Mock Election.
  They met all across the country and around the world to cast their 
votes on who would win the national elections and to vote their 
recommendations to the President and Congress on six key national 
issues. Every State had a State election headquarters that called their 
votes in to National Election Headquarters, as over 20 million viewers 
watched ``the largest voter education project ever''--Time.
  A national television program was aired for 2 hours on C-SPAN, 
showing educators, students, and parents all across the country 
participating in the project's activities. Production assistance and 
funding were provided by Time magazine, Time Warner, HBO, CNN, Conus 
Communications and GLOBALCOM, time magazine provided press assistance, 
publicity and advertising. CNN and HBO contributed public service 
announcements prior to the mock election and CNN reported the results 
hourly the day after. There was extensive coverage by local television 
stations and the media, with educational television stations and cable 
stations airing teenage debates of the issues and teen call-in programs 
prior to mock election night.
  I am pleased to support the 1994 National Student/Parent Mock 
Election. Scholastic magazines has joined the mock election coalition 
and will provide mock election materials to elementary, junior and 
senior high schools across the Nation. A 1994 pilot project, Actions 
invites the students of America to create their own pilot projects to 
help combat violence in their community. Students from elementary 
school through college level are encouraged to organize a project, with 
the assistance of an adult advisor, designed to help turn around the 
violence in their community. The first project to be accepted in each 
State as an official National Student/Parent Election Actions project 
will receive $150 toward expenses. There is no limit to the number of 
pilots per State, or the kinds of projects student might undertake in 
their community. Some examples might include working to secure street 
lights for a dark neighborhood, organizing after school activities for 
unsupervised younger children subject gang inducements, or submitting 
the student's own ideas for legislation to the State legislature and 
working to have their legislation enacted.
  To become an official Actions pilot, groups must fill out a brief 
questionnaire describing their plans, the affiliation of their adult 
advisor, and the group's chairman or leader. Applications must be 
signed by the responsible adult.
  ACTIONS groups will exchange ideas and experiences with each other 
throughout the 1994-1995 school year. At the end of the school year, 
the five most successful Actions project leaders will be awarded a free 
trip to Washington, DC, to meet each other and share experiences in the 
Nation's Capitol. The most successful project will receive a first 
prize award of two tickets overseas.
  This exciting voter education and parent involvement project is made 
possible by a national grassroots network in every State and around the 
world wherever American schools are found. In my own State, Utah, The 
League of Women Voters has led the project. The Standard Examiner of 
Ogden served as Utah Election Headquarters, Deputy Lieutenant Governor 
Tripugth wrote to all the print media soliciting their help in 
educating young voters and I wrote to all of the State's school 
superintendents asking them to encourage their teachers and students to 
participate. In 1994, the league will once again lead Utah's mock 
election and Utah's schools, media, and public officials are again 
working together to educate the next generation of young voters through 
the National Student/Parent Mock Election.
  The project is organized differently in every school and every State, 
but in every State, Members of the Senate and the House can make a 
significant difference by writing to their local school superintendents 
and asking them to be sure their schools are participating in the 
project and I urge my colleagues to do so.

                          ____________________