HB77

Sponsors: ASandstrom-Democrat (CO), CMulvaney-Democrat (NJ) http://mockcongress2011.wikispaces.com/ASandstrom http://mockcongress2011.wikispaces.com/CMulvaney **Bill:** HB77 (Rejuvenate)
 * Rejuvenate **

**Issue Category:** Civil Rights and Criminal Justice

**Our Purpose:** To educate American citizens about the effects of discrimination and delinquency.

**Eligibility:** High school students and their families.

**Introduction to Rejuvenate:** The word rejuvenate is defined as: to restore to a former state; to make fresh or new again; to revive. Our definition of rejuvenate is: a way to clear the slate and start fresh; to blur the lines between "them" and "us." We aim to put in place a program that pulls aside prejudice and discrimination leaving Americans with a new perspective on life, others, and themselves. Through classes in high schools across the United States, we hope to reach out to everyone by making evident the fact that we are all connected by some experience, thought, or feeling. Who we are as people and what we choose to do in our lives is more important than any predetermined criticism based on any one insignificant physical detail.

**Terms:** Rejuvenate only sets standards for the local government to work from because it is very easy to overstep the lines between federal and state government. The bill will be put into effect in the ten states with the highest crime rates as of 2010 (NV, NM, LA, SC, TN, FL, DE, MA, AZ, AR.) If there is improvement in those states, every year after we will add five more states into the program until all 50 states and Washington D.C. have the bill in their school systems. At some point during grades 9-12, students will be required to take a semester class that works to educate the students on civil rights and decision-making. The curriculum will mandate an end of the semester project or field trip that wraps up everything learned and truly helps the students to connect with each other. The state government will be in charge of determining how their state will decide in which grade students will take the class as well as constructing the class itself beneath the given standards.

**Benefits:** The goal of Rejuvenate is to make an impact on at least some fraction of the students who take the course. The students will be taught about how everyone undergoes problems and challenges and that at any moment the circumstances could be flipped around, as well as how one big, bad decision can change your life forever. The hope is that the class manages to fit the puzzle pieces of all the aspects of equality together. Then, the students who are affected can, without trying, help to shape the rest of the community. Through their siblings, parents, friends, co-workers, and anyone they meet they can pass on the message and slowly America will become a happier, safer place for everyone. This bill will ideally help lower crime rates and reinforce that all men were truly created equal.


 * Fiscal Impact: **The federal government would grant each school $1,500 towards the program when they entered it, not every year. The first ten states to receive the class would get a total of $16,890,000 for materials, field trips, projects, and anything else they might need. We would need to research effective strategies for teaching the class as well as to create an online course, as we hope to do, so the teachers hired by the local government can learn what they are supposed to teach. The total research cost is $2,005,500, and the research would only be done the first year so the total for the first year the bill is operating a total of $18,895,500. The process of putting the Rejuvenate class into all 50 states and Washington D.C. will take 9 years because we plan to gauge our process by previous years and shift America into the idea gradually. After the 9 years have passed and all federal spending is finished for the project, aside from the possibility of further research far in the future, the federal government will have spent a total of **$108,455,540.** Funding for this project will be considered mandatory. All funds will be taken from the Affitmative Action program, which focuses on equal rights and discrimination in America. Keep in mind, the state and local governments are responsible for the teachers' salaries and any and all class spending that is not covered by the $1,500 supplied by the federal government. It may seem like a lot, but in the end every cent will be worth it.

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Andrew Altman “Discrimination ” Stanford Edu Tue Feb 1, 2011 May 20, 2011 <span style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"> [] <span style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #377cf6; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;"> 10. Elizabeth Landau “ You may be more racist than you think, study says” CNN January 07, 2009 May 20, 2011 <span style="direction: ltr; language: en-US; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; mso-line-break-override: none; punctuation-wrap: hanging; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"> []
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