For 90 years, YMCAs throughout New York have participated in a youth and government program, giving students a chance to get a hands-on civic education. This year, that program has come to Saratoga County for the first time.
Ben McNutt is an alumn of YMCA’s Youth and Government program, he says he wouldn't be the same person had he not participated in it during high school.
"It's a program that meant a lot to me, to my development. I met some of my life-long friends through the program," said McNutt.
Started in Albany in 1936, the program has since spread across the country and has more than 900 New York participants this year – including, participants in the Saratoga region for the first time. After attending college in Washington, D.C., McNutt returned to the Capital Region this summer, in part, to help start Saratoga’s first YMCA Youth and Government program.
“Students get together in a small group, they write a bill of significance to their state or to their local area and the students actually get to travel to the New York State Capital in Albany for the state conference in March. And we are the only student group in the state that is actually allowed to use the state’s legislative chambers. So, the students, when they come together, they actually go to the state assembly chambers, sit in the seats up in the rostrum, it’s a student-led, student-run program where they get to present their bills and debate them,” said McNutt.
During the program, youth create and pitch their own pieces of legislation, but if they aren’t interested in the legislative process, McNutt says they’ve got options.
“There’s a press program where they learn interview skills, photo and written journalism, there’s a judicial program which is a mock-appeals where the students come together, write a mock brief and present in front of students who are serving on a mock panel of judges,” said McNutt.
Drew Caldwell is the state director for the YMCA Youth and Government in New York.
“The thing that I always want to encourage people to understand is that this is not the future politicians of America. It’s a YMCA program. So, it’s based around community. It’s all about the concept of bringing students together to discuss a variety of issues, focusing on one issue at a time without any parties or partisanship and discussing their ideas as young people,” said Caldwell.
And it’s not all just for educational purposes. McNutt says a number of student-proposed bills have ended up before the actual New York State Assembly over the past nine decades.
“We have an elected youth governor as well who has to sign or veto. So, the bills that are actually passed and signed by the youth governor are actually sent on to the State Legislature. There are 80 New York State laws that are currently on the books that are a result of this program. So, the reason the New York State Senate uses iPads for their work instead of stacking up giant stacks of paper is because of a student proposal,” said McNutt.
Charlie Hughes is a senior at Schuylerville High School. His proposed legislation would change New York’s primary voting process.
“What I’m proposing is that someone can vote regardless of their party affiliation in the primaries for one candidate for each position. So, for example, for someone who’s in the Prohibition Party, just to use a placeholder, they can vote for democratic governor for the primary for governor and then they can vote in the Republican primary for the Lieutenant governor,” said Hughes.
He adds the bill is inspired by countries with a more parliamentary style elections.
“The way I see it, a primary should be for the first round of an election and, in theory, that’s what they are right now. But what we’re seeing is that more and more people, especially in New York state, aren’t identifying with either major party which means they’re effectively disenfranchised from taking part in that earlier round of elections,” said Hughes.
McNutt says the program can help enfranchise the next generation of government leaders. In part, that can come by introducing students to an exchange of ideas without the strife often associated with political dialogue.
“People ask, you know, ‘is this a politics program?’ and I tell them it’s not a program about politics. There’s nothing political to me about wanting to work together, do research, and talk about how we can solve the problems for our friends and neighbors and for members of our community,” said McNutt.
This year’s program culminates with a three-day legislative session beginning March 20.
