Jane: This is But Why: a Podcast for Curious Kids from Vermont
Public I'm Jane Lindholm. On this show, we take questions
from curious kids just like you, and we find interesting people
to answer them. A lot of the time those experts are adults,
but as we've learned in the 10 years we've been making But Why,
you all are experts in your own rights. Our guests today are
governors. They're finding ways to learn about civics and
government and make their home states better places all while
they're in the fifth grade.
Now in the United States, voters in each state elect a governor
who then serves a two or four year term as the top government
official in that state, governors get to approve or veto
bills for new laws sent to them by that state's legislative
branch, and they run the day to day business of the state, and
they're adults. If that sounds like something you'd like to do,
maybe you'll get into politics when you get older. In a few
places, you don't have to wait. Five states participate in a
civics education program called Kid Governor. Fifth graders in
those states develop political platforms focusing on an issue
they care about. Participating schools will vote for one
student that they want to put forward for statewide candidacy.
Seven students across the state are nominated as final
candidates. They create campaign videos about the issue they want
to focus on and why kids should vote for them. And then students
around the state get to choose. The six finalists who are not
elected governor get to serve in the eventual kid governor's
cabinet. The five states with Kid Governors are Connecticut,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Vermont.
Since we live in Vermont, one of the states that now has a kid
governor, we thought we'd check out what it's all about. And
since Melody and I both spent a lot of our careers working in
news as hosts, reporters, editors and producers, we
thought it would be fun to host a kid press conference where the
Kid Governor and cabinet could answer questions from kid
reporters. Today on the episode, we're going to hear a little bit
from that kid press conference and what it's like to be the Kid
Governor of Vermont or a member of the cabinet. And we'll also
hear from Kid Governors in Connecticut and Nebraska.
When we hosted our kid press conference, I started by asking
the 100 or so people in the room if they'd ever watched or
listened to a press conference before some of them raised their
hands. Then I asked if they ever thought about becoming
politicians at some point. Again, a smattering of hands
went up. Fewer hands were raised when I asked who wanted to
become a reporter, which was a little sad for me, but not all
that surprising, to be honest. But I wanted to see if there was
something everyone in the room might agree on.
All right, one more question, anyone here think it's important
to know what's going on in your community, in your state, in
your country, around the world, what the big issues are and what
the leaders who have power are doing to address the issues.
Anyone here think that's important? Food. I was worried
not all the hands would go up, and just about all the hands
went up. You are in the right place today.
Before we got to the kid governor, I then invited
Vermont's Secretary of State up to the podium. The Secretary of
State in each state is in charge of making sure elections run
smoothly and fairly, and for the states participating in the Kid
Governor program, it's the Secretary of State who runs it.
Here's Vermont's Secretary of State, Sarah Copeland Hanzas.
Sarah: I am so excited that all of you are here. I'm excited
that you get to hear from the Kid Governor and her cabinet,
and I'm excited that you get to ask them questions too, because
one of the most important things about living in a democracy is
that we get to ask our leaders questions, and we get to tell
them ideas that we have. Have you ever thought about or what
would you think about doing this instead of that? That is our job
as citizens in a democracy, is to ask our leaders questions.
And I think it's so exciting that we are here today with the
But Why podcast and the whole team from Vermont Public, thank
you all for being here. I want to tell you just a few little
snippets about the Kid Governor program. We had over a thousand
fifth graders this year participate in the Kid Governor
program. 47 schools across the state, and over 20 students ran
for Kid Governor, including some of the kids in the audience
today. We like this program because it does more than just
hold a mock election. It actually teaches kids how to put
together a platform, how to put forward an idea of something
that they want to fix in the world. And the exciting thing
is, is that our office gets to work with this fabulous group of
cabinet and governor, and we get to help try to implement some of
their ideas. So remember, in a democracy, it is our job to hold
our leaders accountable for the things that we think are
important. So I'm looking forward to hearing your
questions today and team, Kid Governor and cabinet, I'm
looking forward to hearing your answers. Thank you so much for
being here.
Jane: Because this event was a press conference, and all the
people in the audience were the press, I wanted to make sure we
all understood the role of the press, reporters and other
journalists who help make sure you know what's going on in the
world, and who ask tough questions of politicians. So I
invited my friend and colleague Bob Kinzel to give us some tips,
Bob is one of our political reporters here at Vermont Public
where But Why is made, and he's been covering governors since
the 1970s.
Bob: I've covered Vermont politics for pretty much my
adult life, and one of the reasons I enjoyed it so much,
and I still enjoy it, is the access that we have to public
officials and being able to ask them questions. It's really
quite remarkable in Vermont, and it's something that I really
enjoy. And I also have the feeling that all of you who are
here today, you're here because you care, otherwise you wouldn't
be here, so I think that's a great sign for the future.
Jane: All right, so Bob, what is the point of a press conference.
What is a press conference designed to do?
Bob: There are two different types of press conferences. One
might be the Secretary of State might hold a press conference to
talk about a ballot initiative, so it's very narrowly focused on
that particular issue. Another one might be the governor's
weekly press conference. Now the week. It's an incredible
tradition in Vermont that the governor holds a weekly press
conference and the governor will come in. Governor Scott this
week came in yesterday, talked about his housing initiative,
and then said, okay, I'll take questions from the floor. This
does not happen in many other states that it's a wide open
press conference. You can talk about anything.
Jane: So often the politician or the person who calls a press
conference has something that they want to say, something they
want to get out to the public through the press. And then
often they do take questions. What do the reporters who are
the attendees at a press conference? What are they trying
to get out of it?
Bob: I think we're trying to understand what the issue is.
And I'll take the example with the Secretary of State of a
ballot initiative. She might be talking about mail in balloting,
and we allow mail in ballots 45 days before an election. And so
we're trying to understand what is the issue that the Secretary
of State trying to tell us about? And then you may have
some questions about it. Well, how is this going to work?
What's the cost of this? Why do you think this is a good idea?
Sometimes the best questions are the simplest ones of just, why
do you think this is a good idea, and to be able to get a
response in that way. Now, sometimes people don't answer
questions, and then we ask the question again.
Jane: What do you do after the press conference? Because
you've gotten the information that you want, but your job
isn't done?
Bob: No, my job is just started. So I go back to our office here
in Montpelier, and I think about, what is the story here?
What is what we'll call the lead of this story, and then start to
fill in the blanks as we go along and tell the story as best
as I can do.
Jane: You have advice for the kid reporters in our audience
today of how they might think about framing a question, or
what they might ask, the kinds of things
Bob: I would say, keep your questions simple. Don't
piggyback them. Don't say, Well, I'd like to know this and what
about that? And while you're at it, let's talk about this. So
make your first question just very concise. What is it that
you want to know? Ask that question and then listen to the
answer.
Jane: Well, this was really helpful, Bob. Thank you very
much for helping us understand what our job is here as the
people who are watching the press conference, and thank you
for your reporting.
Bob: Oh, thank you.
Jane: At this point, Vermont's Kid Governor and her cabinet
joined us on the stage. So we have coming up today to speak
with us. Kid Governor Roslyn Fortin of Highgate, come on up,
Rosalyn.
Roslyn: Hi. My name is Roslyn, and I'm Vermont's Kid.Governor.
I'm from Highgate, Vermont and attend Highgate Elementary
School. My platform is homelessness. I chose
homelessness because everyone deserves a safe place to live,
and I want to help bring awareness and hope to people who
need it. And did you know that Vermont is the fourth highest in
the country for homelessness? I have also learned that working
together is really important in projects like these, because you
need lots of ideas. Hear others' ideas, and you need lots of
teamwork, too. Thank you.
In addition to Roslyn, there are six cabinet members who join her
in making their voices heard. Here's just a tiny bit about
what each of them is focused on.
Gaelen: I'm Gaelen McNaughton. I attend Wethersfield School. My
platform is improving school lunches, because I always hear
kids complaining about the taste and nutrition.
Karin: My name is Karin Ashley. My platform is mental health.
And I chose mental health because I used to live in Japan
and in Japan, like you can like, trust people, but when I came to
America, our school had to do safety drills, and you don't
have to do those in Japan, and I was thinking that the main
reason, usually, for people like intruding schools is when they
were little, they didn't have a good time at school, so I
decided to make that my issue.
Lincoln: Hello. My name is Lincoln Ratta. I go to Lincoln
Community School. I currently live in Lincoln, Vermont, but I
was born in Highgate. My platform is healthcare
accessibility. Three percent of people in Vermont are uninsured,
or about 22,000 people. Vermont has a shortage of doctors,
dentists, nurses and other medical professionals. Also,
since we live in such a rural state, it takes some time to get
to the hospital or other helps that people need.
Rumano: Hi, my name is Rumano. I go to Champlain Elementary
School in Burlington, Vermont. My platform is called Vermont
Strong Inside and Out. I wanted to run for Kid Governor because
I started noticing that a lot of people in my community were
struggling with their mental health. I saw kids feeling
stressed and adults feeling overwhelmed, and it made me
realize this is something we should talk about more and work
on together. That inspired me to run and try to help make a
difference. My platform focuses on helping students take care of
their minds and support each other.
Westyn: My name is Westyn Danforth. I go to Bradford
Elementary. I'm also from Bradford, Vermont. My platform
is anti bullying. I chose anti bullying, because I believe it's
a very important topic. One out of every five kids get bullied.
I believe that that number can be lowered
Jane: The sixth member of the cabinet, Phoebe, was sick the
day of the press conference and wasn't able to attend the event.
Her platform is addressing mental health issues. Now,
remember how Bob Kinzel told us that politicians will often
start with a little bit of information, and then reporters
get to ask whatever questions they might have on those topics
or others. After the opening remarks from each member of the
cabinet and the Kid Governor, it was time for the kids in the
audience to ask those questions. Here are just a few of the ones
they directed to Vermont's kid governor.
Kid: This is for Roslyn. Do you know anyone that's homeless?
Roslyn: I don't know anyone that's homeless, but I have
like, seen like, I don't personally know anybody that's
homeless, but I have seen like homeless people.
Kid: What can Vermont do to help the homeless?
Roslyn: I think Vermont could help by like donating, donating
like clothes that they don't use, or like, like clothes, or
like blankets or something, or they could donate to local
homeless shelters. And yeah.
Jane: One of my favorite questions of the evening went to
Gaelen, whose platform is to improve school lunches. There
were a lot of kids in the audience who had questions about
that.
Kid: This question is for Gaelen. I have a couple people
in my school with dietary restrictions and allergies. Do
you have any ideas to help their meals become better?
Gaelen: Yeah, so recently, we changed things for lactose
intolerant. Um. Um, they never get chocolate milks. So we have
chocolate almond milk now for those kids who can't have the
regular milk because they thought it was not fair to not
have the same things that the kids without the allergies have,
and we have sun butter and jelly sandwiches. And sometimes we
have gluten free, dairy free, most of the time not free meals,
but others, we always have parfait sandwiches and other
things like that. But that's I'll keep that in mind, because
a lot of meals are not compatible with dietary problems
like that.
Jane: I like that question and answer in particular because it
showed a reporter asking a question about people in their
community who might not be getting served well by school
lunches, and Gaelen, who is working to improve them, was
able not only to share what he's been doing at his school to try
to make sure everyone gets to enjoy chocolate milk if they
want to, but also that then the question reminded him to think a
little bit more deeply about what else he could do in his
role. Thanks to the Vermont Kid Governor and Kid Cabinet and all
of the kid reporters in the audience for making our kid
press conference such a big success. Coming up, we'll hear
from Kid Governors in Connecticut and Nebraska.
This is But Why. I'm Jane Lindholm, and today we're
learning about Kid Governor a civics education program where
fifth graders take part in a statewide election to choose a
Kid Governor for a one year term in their state. Five states have
a Kid Governor this year, and each governor is working to
raise awareness and take action on a specific issue. In
Connecticut, Kid Governor Tessa wants to address inclusion for
students with disabilities.
Tessa: It's great to be able to make a change in Connecticut and
work with a team to help make the state a better place.
Jane: What changes are you hoping to make to Connecticut
that would make it a better place?
Tessa: I'm hoping to make it more inclusive and more non
judgmental towards disabled children.
Jane: How do you get to do that as a as the Kid Governor? How do
you use that platform to try to achieve those goals?
Tessa: Well, I'm going to use my three platform steps, which are
creating videos to show how to include students with
disabilities, creating a buddy system where fifth graders pair
with students with disabilities, and creating a buddy lunch table
where students can sit together and have an inclusive lunch.
Jane: I know you're only a couple of months in so far. But
how are you implementing it? Like, how who's helping you? How
do you use this role to, like, make that happen statewide?
Tessa: Well, my school, my teachers, my friends, my family
have all been helping me, and I've been doing a lot of
interviews. I've been at a couple of events where I've told
people about my platform and helped raise awareness about
what's happening, but so far, we haven't moved forward on my
platform as much we will get started soon, though.
Jane: That sounds a lot like politics at the adult level too.
You run with all of these ideas, and then you get started, and
it's hard. There's a lot to do, and there are a lot of different
people who have to get involved. And sometimes things are harder
than just saying, Here's what I want to do, and I'm the
governor, and I get to implement it. Are you experiencing some of
that?
Tessa: A little bit. There are some kids who don't know who I
am, so I have to explain myself over and over. And then there
are some kids who I think a little afraid to talk to me,
because, well, I'm much more state and statewide known than
most people have, than people most people have met.
Jane: Yeah, so are they intimidated a little bit to talk
to you do you think?
Tessa: I think so.
Jane: So what do you do when you think people either don't know
who you are or are intimidated to talk with you.
Tessa: If they don't know who I am, I try to explain a little
bit. And if they're intimidated, I try to just talk to them like
I would to my friends or to somebody before I was Kid
Governor.
Jane: And does it work?
Tessa: Most of the time.
Jane: If there are other kids who are fourth graders this year
who are thinking, maybe I want to do this, or maybe my state
doesn't have a Kid Governor program, and I think I'd like to
encourage them to have one. Do you have advice?
Tessa: I would say, go for it. The Kid Governor community is an
awesome program, and it's a great way to learn about civics,
and it's also a great way to think about what you want to do,
how you want to change your state. And I would say that if
you're feeling nervous, just take a deep breath and make sure
you have people who are proud of you, no matter what.
Jane: That was Kid Governor Tessa of Connecticut. Meanwhile,
in Nebraska Kid Governor Charlie wants to raise awareness about
cancer, an issue that's really important to her.
Charlie: I know that I'm a natural leader, and I really
want to help people with that. At first, I didn't actually
think of it as, like, this big.
Jane: When did you start to realize, uh oh, I've gotten
myself into something big?
Charlie: When I was one of the seven candidates for the
statewide election, because I honestly didn't think I would
get that far. I was the only one from my school to be in the
statewide election, because the other one, Delaney, my best
friend, she, for some reason, didn't make it into the
statewide election.
Jane: So then you were in the statewide election, and kids
from all over Nebraska got to vote. And one, I mean, kids in
your school know who you are, so they might know. Oh yeah,
Charlie's a natural leader, this makes sense. But kids around the
state don't necessarily know who you are, and so one of the
things that you had to do was have a platform that you run on
some ideas of the things that you'd like to work on to benefit
your state if you were elected Kid Governor, what's your
platform?
Charlie: My platform is cancer awareness.
Jane: How did you choose that?
Both of my sisters, their father died of cancer. I wasn't born
yet, but their father died of cancer, and I just I've never
experienced what it felt like, but I came pretty, pretty close
to because in 2024 my my father had a heart attack.
So this feels personal to you?
Charlie: Yes.
Jane: Yeah, and it affects people you love.
Charlie: Yes.
Jane: So how do you hope to bring awareness to people in
Nebraska or to the issues of cancer and cancer research and
Cancer Care and Prevention?
Charlie: First off, I want to raise money for places that can
help people with that, like Camp Kesem. And I also just want to
have people to be aware and know how hard cancer is if a friend
or family member doesn't, and for people who do have friends
or family members that have cancer, I want them to know that
you're not alone and that we can help.
Jane: Is Camp Kesem a camp for kids who've been affected by
cancer in their families?
Charlie: Yes, so Camp Kesem is for kids ages six through 18,
for kids whose family members or friends even have been affected
by cancer, and my sisters went there when their father died.
Jane: So part of your platform is raising money for
organizations that that help people who are affected by this.
Clearly your platform resonated or spoke to kids who were voting
for who the governor should be. So you won the state election.
How did you get the news?
Charlie: We waited a while for the news, but one Friday after
school, Mr. Billisbach, our science and social studies
teacher, he called me down to his room after school, and then
I said that we needed to talk about something so I didn't
assume I was in trouble. I just didn't know what was going on,
and then he broke the news that I won, and my brain was just
spiraling. I could not believe it at all.
Jane: That was Kid Governor Charlie in Nebraska. There are
two other Kid Governors, Livia in New Hampshire, who's working
to address the dangers of smoking, vaping and drugs, and
Katelyn, the Kid Governor in Oklahoma who wants to address
issues of animal abuse. So far, only five states have Kid
Governors. If your state isn't one of them, maybe you can help
get it started. Ask your teacher to look into the program. Even
if you don't want to be Kid Governor, we have some homework
for you. We want you to think about an issue in your community
that you think needs attention. Then come up with three ideas
for how you could work to address that issue. Write them
down. Then talk to an adult about what you can do to move
forward on your goals. After all, it's not just governors,
kid or adult, who get things done in our communities, you too
can make a difference.
That's it for this episode. As always, if you have a question
about anything, have an adult record, you asking it on a
smartphone using an app like voice memos, then have them
email the file to questions@butwhykids.org. Our
show is produced by Sarah Baik, Melody Bodette and me, Jane
Lindholm, at Vermont Public and distributed by PRX. Our video
producer is Joey Palumbo, and our theme music is by Luke
Reynolds. If you like our show, please have your adults help you
give us a thumbs up or a review on whatever podcast platform you
use to listen to us, it helps other kids and families find us.
We'll be back in two weeks with an all new episode. Until then,
stay curious.