It's time to include young people in the American dream by giving them a deal... a "TEEN New Deal", federal legislation mandating nationwide student pay, student government, and student media for ALL STUDENTS, elementary through high school. Our country, our generation, deserves this. And if we enact the legislation by July 4, 2026, it can be considered a gift to our younger generation for America's 250th birthday celebration! (1776-2026=250!)
America IS the best nation on Earth.... but there's still room to improve. Violence, hatred, intolerance, economic inequity, etc. What's the solution? Some businesses and corporations have found a solution that conditions people into better behavior by using incentives to motivate employees and rewards for valued customers. Students will be the next leaders of our country, but usually by the time they become adults, they're already conditioned into certain kinds of behavior, some good, and unfortunately, some bad. If we offer students incentives and rewards to do better at school academically, we can also offer them incentives/rewards to condition them into better moral behavior too. And as they mature into adults, continue to offer them incentives/rewards to maintain those behaviors into and through adulthood.
This can be done by duplicating the adult economic/political landscape at the school level, with three nationwide programs: Student Pay, Student Government, and Student Media:
Student Pay - Pay students with digital currency and allow parent access to earnings based on student age. The younger the student is, the more access to their earnings parents will have, and the older the student gets, parent access decreases. ***If we pay students, then other monetary/non-monetary rewards can be offered to them for better academic/civic behavior, leading to a decrease in social ills and creating more harmony within society.
Student Government - ALL students should have the opportunity to vote at school on school-based issues like uniforms, trips, lunch, security, etc., so they can be better equipped to vote as adults.
Student Media - Students should have access to all forms of media (tv, radio, newspaper, social media, etc.) at school on a closed-circuit (only visible/accessible to staff, students inside school building/network) so that teachers can instruct youth how to responsibly use these technologies.
Exposing our youth to the mechanisms that allow our nation to function will give them all a head start. Young people can better learn financial literacy, political literacy, and media literacy. The nation will have a healthier economy. Elections will have more turnout at the polls, citizens will be more politically engaged. Communities will see more of themselves and their members represented positively in various media outlets.
Let's get our house in order, by taking care of the kids and getting them prepared to live in and operate the most technologically advanced society our world has ever known... AMERICA! THE UNITED STATES.
GOD BLESS AMERICA! GOD BLESS THE WORLD!
