Two months ago, in November 2024, William Kelley School celebrated with a ribbon cutting for the construction done at the school. One of the speakers in attendance was Senator Grant Hauschild, who helped to secure funding for the project. While Senator Hauschild was at William Kelley, social studies teacher Ward Kaiser invited him to return to WKS and speak to high school students about government and legislature.
Wednesday, January 8, Senator Hauschild returned to Silver Bay and spoke for an hour with about 40 American Government students. Hauschild shared about how he first got involved in public service as a young person, adding how being involved helped him in his academic life. “The main focus” Ward Kaiser shared, “was about what his job entails and how the lawmaking process works.” Senator Hauschild’s district is what he terms “50/50”, in that there are many Democrat and many Republican voters in his district, instead of just a majority of one party. He shared the struggles of figuring out how to vote to best represent the wishes of the people and provide direct representation, and how that plays into situations when the people want something he personally doesn’t.
“It was about how [the] state government works rather than about his own politics (of course if students asked about some of that he gave them some insight) and how he carries out his duties as our senator,” Kaiser added. Senator Hauschild also offered to work with WKS students to draft a bill to be introduced in the legislature if there was a topic or a matter of concern students had that they would like to see go through the legislative process.
“Who better to ask than young people?” Hauschild commented about staying in touch with constituents. He wants to foster opportunities for young people to stay in their communities and benefit them, and provide opportunities for communities to grow. “Oftentimes in northern Minnesota, our greatest resources come from the earth, but the truth is for me, given how rural our communities are, our greatest resource is our young people.”
“It was a great opportunity for our students to become more familiar with who represents them in the state legislature while at the same time giving the person that represents them the chance to get to know them,” Ward Kaiser said. “I think it’s great that when Senator Hauschild is down at the capitol in St. Paul and there’s anything that comes along concerning the Silver Bay area, he’ll be thinking of the students he met up here that day.” Kaiser concluded, “It was nice to have the intimate setting and several of our students felt comfortable asking questions and felt at ease. It had been a few years since our classes have been able to meet up with one of our state elected officials. The last was when Pete Stauber and Roger Skraba had been in town.”
In 1796, during George Washington’s Eighth Annual Message to Congress, he said, “A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?” And these “future guardians of the liberties” are on their way to becoming the “well informed citizenry” spoken of by Thomas Jefferson.
