Don't End a Once-in-a-lifetime Civics Lesson
An open letter to the House Speaker & Democratic Leader:
August 22, 2011

Dear Mr. Speaker and Madam Leader,

With all due respect, your recent decision to end the House of Representatives page program after more than 200 years is ill-advised and short-sighted and should be reversed. As a former page, I assure you the lessons learned on Capitol Hill as a high school student last a lifetime—and affect many more people than just the pages themselves.

Simply stated, paging is about engaging and encouraging that very small group of teens interested in politics and public policy, to show them how one day they could add to the potential of America.

But first, let's address your vendors' flawed process and reasoning: the companies analyzed the cost, not the cost-benefit of the program. The “per person total cost” of all employees is always much higher than just salary and benefits. With that analysis, justifying many congressional office positions would be a challenge. The analysis of the program also said in today's world of electronic communications, running errands is obsolete. Did your vendors talk to actual pages or congressional staff? Those of us who've maintained contact with Capitol Hill know that pages are still very busy.

Many large or sensitive documents still require personal delivery and a signature. More importantly, Members of Congress aren't allowed to use their cell phones on the House Floor, so the very traditional role of pages finding Members in the Chamber is as real today as ever.

But an evolution of the pages' role certainly is possible. Since the communication is occurring in person, perhaps the message or document delivered by the page (vs. an Email or text) will hold added significance—an embodiment of “ASAP” when the message comes from a page. Pages could also be assigned more time in their sponsors' offices, assisting with legislative or constituent services.

Let the program change, not die. The benefit—to Congress and America—is virtually unmatched. Very few opportunities exist for high school students to gain the hands-on, witness-to-history training for future community leadership that paging does.

Those of us who served as pages have become civic, political, military and business leaders in our home communities, and several have served in Congress. Thus, your vendors' analysis was fundamentally flawed: you're paying for current and future benefit that directly helps the Congress. How? As future leaders in our communities or professions, we're some of the most committed, informed and educated electorate that you frequently ask to get involved in national issues…and contribute to your campaigns.

Moreover, at this challenging, politically divisive time in U.S. history, we must support those youth whose interest is in Congress and the mechanics of government. We talk about how youth “are our future,” so let's prove we mean it. The opportunities the page program creates for interested teens are limitless. Students from all over the United States break through geographical, race, sex, and income barriers to participate. And they learn so much more than the political process…they learn about the magic of America.

Many pages start the program with preconceived notions—stereotypes—about people from different parts of the country, yet what they find usually surprises them. Don't forget what it's like to be a teen—to know only your surroundings, your culture, your friends and family. Paging opens students' eyes beyond their existing narrow scopes of reality, to the true definition of America. Both through interacting with their friends and watching you and your colleagues, they meet and learn from others…fellow countrymen with the same hopes, same fears, same ambitions and same dreams that they hold.

Those of us who were honored to page quickly learned that one friend's “pop” is another's father and yet another's soda. Then we learned of myriad social and political differences, but most importantly, that despite these differences, we learned the commitment to America and her ideals truly does span from sea to shining sea. And we take with us—and share—that incredible lesson of America for the rest of our lives.

For those of us lucky enough to have been pages, we saw firsthand the textbook diagram of “How a Bill Becomes a Law” come to life. We learned both the process and the promise of our incredible American republic. Our children should be so lucky.