2024 HSLP: Day 11

High School Leaders Program Class of 2024
Day 11: Tuesday, July 23, 2024
Reported by: Gretchen Schmitt, James Madison High School and Theo Hirsh, The Steward School

Today we completed the budget game. We were assigned to the Senate or House having a deficit of $1,000,000,000. We were given a list of services we could cut and taxes we could raise to balance the budget, but none of our decisions were easy. We had to consider constituent needs and our own reelection campaigns. We had to cut funding for education, parks, and public health to compromise while balancing the budget. Each chamber had different goals, but we came to a compromise in the end. Nobody was happy with the final budget, but we accepted that it was the best we could do. We certainly learned a lot about how much work our legislators put into the budget and all the difficult decisions they have to make. Now we understand why it takes them so long to agree. 

After the budget game we had had an hour and a half before dinner and our headshots. We scrambled to get dressed in our business professional attire before heading to dinner where we were careful not to get food on our fancy clothes. On our way to the Rotunda for headshots, we saw a USA themed party hosted by the Japanese - American diplomat program. We had fun taking pictures with the decorations. After that, we headed to the lawn where we posed under the first ever bullet proof clock and the surrounding edifice. When it started to rain we quickly gathered for our group photo before heading for cover and getting headshots taken in a pretty pillar lined corridor under the Rotunda. Then, we took more pictures, enjoyed the rain, and played a spirited game of Heads Up, before the storm let up and we headed back to the dorms. 

In the dorms we made final edits to our policy project drafts before submitting them for review to end a long day.