Kathryn Jean Lopez argues that teens shouldn't leave "normal" America to come to DeeCee, and be congressional pages.
She writes, "I'm all for encouraging kids to be overachievers, to learn all they can and take opportunities wherever they can get them. But why does a 16-year-old need to be sitting on the House floor during the day? Pols don't need anyone running back and forth for them as much as they once did. There are BlackBerrys now. If I want to get a congressman, I'll shoot him an e-mail; certainly his colleagues can do the same."
K-Lo is right that it's an anachronistic program, but, honestly, the fate of most 16-year-olds is to be stuck in staus quo classrooms all day long, so the page gig, coupled with attending the special page school, would strike many kids as the more exciting alternative. (Uh, maybe too exciting given the events of the past week or so.)
However, if this program is indeed a perk for the privileged or the connected, then why are taxpayers stuck funding it? It's neither cheap or constitutional.
Can one of you pages deliver that message to my congresscritter?
