On June 30, high school students in the TRIO program congregated in the Spencer Fox Eccles Business Building to hear Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT) speak about civic engagement. During the lecture, Stewart touched on subjects such as hard work, the Air Force and up-chucking bologna sandwiches. After finishing his remarks, he took questions from the audience of students.
One student asked him about what he is doing to contribute to education.
“A lot of people ask me about education and you know what I say to them? As a federally elected official, you shouldn’t care what I think about education because I want the states to make those decisions and the local communities to make those decisions — not the federal government.”
He then proceeded to explain how in the colonial days, only the rich and elite had access to education and that the communities decided to come together and provide education for every child.
Another student voiced concern for how government funds programs. Stewart commented saying that there is not enough money in government for funding certain programs and that the government wastes money.
One student addressed the importance of higher education and questioned why tuition is expensive and keeps rising.
“The answer to that isn’t very sexy, interesting or going to entertain you much. Part of it is administrative costs. Part of it is when you subsidize something, it pushes the price up and the government is subsidizing education. And the fact that [the government] has student loans and grants that make more money available — that pushes up the costs of education.”
The topic of civic engagement was not addressed much, but was instead replaced by Stewart telling the students that it is hard work, not intelligence alone that provides success. He used an example from his time in the Air Force and how his hard work helped him get through training.
After the lecture, an unplanned conversation was announced so that Stewart’s lecture could be explained and discussed in further detail.
“We want our students to be engaged citizens and that means hearing platforms from the different candidates, whether or not they disagree. It’s helping them to gain the critical thinking skills early enough so that they become part of the process,” said Kyle Ethelbah, director of University of Utah TRIO program.
The TRIO program is a federally funded program that helps high school students who are first-generation and low-income students get into college. In addition to education, resources for financial aid are provided for students. Last year was the first year that politics was introduced to the program. Leaders of the program thought this was important for students to learn, especially with the upcoming presidential election. A visit from Stewart was intended to help students understand civic engagement better.
“We are appreciative to Congressman Stewart for coming. He’s actually never come to see any of the programs that are in his district before. He has the largest number of funded programs in his district compared to any other representative in the state,” says Ethelbah.
Rep. Stewart’s district has 52 schools and 2,600 students in the TRIO program.