More than 70 young men overhauled state legislation on animal sales and cruelty, educational testing and the legality of marijuana at last week’s Boys State. The laws won’t stick but the experience will, according to Boys State Gov. Brent Ashley of Felton.
Brent’s peers elected him during the weeklong American Legion program that teaches selected students about the state government by allowing them to shadow their counterparts, and develop and pass laws.
“My cabinet and I came up with a bold agenda,” Brent said as he looked through his paperwork scattered on Gov. Jack Markell’s desk, which Brent inherited for the day.
That agenda included nine bills as of Thursday morning. They spanned a wide range of topics, starting with the environmentally friendly 75% reduction of paper usage in schools by 2020, and raising the amount the state subsidizes for solar panels. Legislators also decided money management should be taught in schools, and that the state could save money by including volunteer tutors in schools.
Brent also has a newfound appreciation for what the state’s elected officials go through, especially after shadowing Markell for a day.
“The governor is underappreciated because he has a hard, hard time,” Brent said. “I was very impressed for his morals.”
Many of Brent’s family members work for the state, and he said Markell doesn’t take lightly the state employee salary cuts he’s proposed as a means of balancing the state budget. Brent also said that the experience has made him realize that the state’s budget woes aren’t going to vanish immediately.
“This is not just going to bounce back in one year. I can’t say it’s going to get better. It’s going to get less worse,” he said.
Brent was one of 10 local participants, including Jonathan Edwin Abbott and Ryan Leonard of Caesar Rodney High School; George Gaetano Gallo III, Kyle Niezgoda and Joshua Stein of Dover High School; Daniel Hart of Lake Forest High School; and Ryan Coll, Joseph Zarraga and Charles Viddy of Saint Thomas More Preparatory.
Past national American Legion commander Robert Turner said the beauty of Delaware’s program is that the state’s stature allows participants to actually be in Legislative Hall and spend time with their real government counterparts.
Turner is a longtime director of the Georgia program, and was in Dover to observe Delaware’s Boys State. The state programs feed into Boys Nation, which gives top Boys State participants the opportunity to participate in a federal version.
“He’s the kind of young man we have at Boys Nation,” Turner said of Brent.
Unfortunately, Brent will be too immersed in Delaware State Fair activities to participate in Boys Nation this year. Brent is a member of FFA, 4-H and is a junior fair board member.
Email Sarika Jagtiani at sarika.jagtiani@doverpost.com
