An early lesson in politics

Charis Prunty/Register

District 7 candidates for the South Dakota Senate, Pam Merchant and incumbent Sen. Larry Tidemann, listen as a member of the Boys & Girls Club of Brookings asks a question Wednesday afternoon during the club’s Political Party.

Tidemann and Merchant hosted three mini-forums, first with fourth- and fifth-grade club members, then teen members and finally people from the community. The candidates used their time to both answer the questions and to help students understand more about these issues.



Club members had prepared questions for the forum that highlighted issues they find important. For fourth- and fifth-graders, these questions included things like “What would your tax rate look like?” “Do you have any control over how much homework we have?” “Are you in favor of more or less soldiers?” “Could you let us have desserts occasionally for lunch?” and “Do you support going to school year-round or would you rather keep it nine months?”