GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Pennsylvania State Senator Michele Brooks hosted students from 21 high schools from Mercer, Crawford, and Erie counties for Government Day at Thiel College on October 11.
More than 114 students participated in the event that model state government. Students were assigned roles in various committees and dealt with the issue of expanding sales tax in Pennsylvania to include clothing. The students were organized into committees then separated into five groups including Education, Appropriation, Judiciary, State Government, and Public Health and Welfare. The discussion modeled the state government, more specifically, the senate.
“I wanted to give the students a sense of what it’s like to be in a legislative assembly,” Senator Brooks said.
The students presented their bills in a “senate session” where the students learned etiquette for speaking in the Pennsylvania Senate and voted on the bills presented by each committee. Based on the feedback and interaction, Senator Brooks said the seminar showed students had an interest in how government works and how it affected their communities.
This is the third year Brooks has hosted the event at Thiel College.