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Howe student elected House Representative at Texas Boys State

It's been a while since a Howe student attended the American Legion Texas Boys State program in Austin Jackson Wilson, an entering senior, not only represented Howe well but was even elected to the House of Representatives by his peers during the week-long stay

Boys State is a program is designed to develop civic leadership and pride in American citizenship as well as develop a keen interest in government The Boys State website states that the objectives are "To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation" and "to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom, and democracy."

Wilson, the son of Clay and Alicia Wilson of Howe, stayed on campus at the University of Texas where his floor in the dorm became his city The groups were divided between two fictitious parties, the "Federalists" and the "Nationalists" Wilson was placed in the Federalist party and immediately they began electing precinct chairmen, city delegates, House of Representatives, Senators, and other roles Wilson ran for the House of Representatives and needed to acquire a certain amount of signatures to qualify He became one of the four Representatives from his group

Since Wilson was elected to the House, he and the other House and Senate members spent the remainder of the week working on state legislative bills and issues

"In the House, we selected a Speaker of the House and he selected a secretary and other positions," said Wilson "They separated us into several committees to discuss topics such as second amendment rights, abortion, environmental, and education reforms "

Wilson was placed into the committee to discuss abortion where they were instructed to come up with a bill If the bill passed, it would be placed on the docket

"The abortion topic is a pretty hot one so a few of us guys went to a sub-committee and mainly focused on the adoption and foster care system," said Wilson Wilson's sub-committees suggestion was to raise the tax rate from 8 25 percent to 10 25 percent, but the additional two percent came from goods imported from other states The two percent tax went towards the improvement of the foster care system and the adoption system which each isn't currently being funded enough to provide standards

"We weren't directly attacking the pro-choice stance, we were just improving another option," said Wilson "Some kids are in foster care until 18 and we wanted to make sure that didn't happen We wanted to make sure the mother would feel better about placing the child up for adoption if we improved the adoption system "

Wilson said the topic was hot and heavy and the first day of deliberation came to a boiling point but improved dramatically over the next few days According to Wilson, roughly two-thirds of the Boys State participants were of conservative nature, with the other third leaning either liberal or moderate

The boys learned how bills get passed in the Senate and the House and how many bills were placed, but very few made it through While there were a few serious bills that got passed, there were several silly bills that passed both the House and Senate just for fun For instance, with the students having to wear pants for the entire week, a bill was placed to allow for the wearing of shorts.

"We called it the Right to Bear Legs," Wilson joked "We passed bills renaming animals such as vultures to trash raptors, eagles to freedom birds and snakes to danger noodles We also passed a bill where Texas annexed Iceland and renamed it Whataburgerland " They did pass serious legislation where they provided increased funding for teachers and the reform of STAAR testing and the heavy financial burden it presents to the state

"We wanted to get to a situation where teachers weren't trying to just get us to pass the STAAR test to meet a quota, but they'd actually get to prepare us for our future with SAT and ACT integration," said Wilson

Some new friends came out of the experience where Wilson says that he found himself with like-minded individuals who have aspirations about bettering themselves and their communities

"It really did help to be able to talk about other things - higher up things than the traditional conversations here," said Wilson "I wish there more people like that here Overall it was a great experience "

Wilson was sponsored by the American Legion Post #194 of Anna with help through Jim Fleming of American Legion and Hurricane Creek Rotary Club A Texas Boys State alumnus from Howe stated that Wilson was the perfect candidate to re-establish the program in Howe