Prior to writing Article I: Legislative Branch, students should have completed "Web Quest: Legislative Branch" and reached a better understanding about the Legislative Branch. If you have not done this, please do so now.
As we have learned, the Preamble establishes the overarching purpose and goals of the Constitution. What now follows the Preamble are rules that establish a system of government for our school. Remember the rules we create must uphold the goals of our Preamble - i.e. a fair classroom experience for all. We will begin this process by writing Article I, which will layout the design of our legislativebranch.
First, we need to design the structure of the legislative branch. This is established in Section 1 of Article I. In the U.S. Constitution, Section 1 reads, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives". We can see that the structure of the legislative branch is broken into two parts: Senate and the House of Representatives. What parts will you break your legislative branch into, and what will you call them? Meanwhile, if the goal of our preamble is to create a fair educational experience, we can infer that all groups within the educational experience need to receive representation and play some role in the legislature. But how might you do this? It is up to you how the structure of the legislature is setup, but make sure it is equal and fair for all.
Second, we need to establish some qualifications for holding office within the legislative branch. We can call this Section 2 of Article I.If students are going to serve in the legislature, they should possess certain merits and achievements, right? Might it be necessary for them to maintain a certain GPA or be on the honor roll? Might they need to show patterns of good behavior without disciplinary issues? I am sure there are more qualifications to consider as well. How about the qualifications for teachers and administrators if they are to serve in the legislature? I don't want to give you too many ideas, but all of this needs to be developed in this section.
Third, we need to describe the process for choosingrepresentatives and specifying their term limits. All of this will be included in Section 3 of Article I. For example, are they elected? If so, how often are elections held, and how long are their terms? All of this needs to be included in this section.
Fourth, we need to describe the processfor making laws for our school. This can placed in Section 4 of Article I. The law making process is initiated by introducing a bill - a proposal for a law. Who has the power to write these bills, and how is a bill passed into a law? I imagine it would have to receive a certain amounts of votes by the legislature. If so, what percentage of votes is required to make a law? This is all up to you to decide, but please make sure it makes sense. It might be a good idea to reference the law making process within the US Congress for ideas.
Finally, we need to define the powers of our legislature. We can include this in Section 5 of Article I. Remember, the powers of the legislature must be defined to create limited government. Essentially, the legislature can do only those those things that are defined in section 5, and if the legislature does something that is not defined here, we will be able to infer that they have overstepped their powers.
So list some powers here. One way to determine the powers you want the legislature to have is to think about the types of laws you want them to pass. If you want the legislature to pass laws about what subjects we learn, you need to give them the power to determine the school curriculum. If you want the legislature to pass laws about the foods available in the cafeteria, you need to give them power over the cafeteria. Essentially, if congress passes a law, it must align with one of their powers! List these here in Section 5.
So in a nutshell, we need to create Article I of our High School Constitution by including the following 5 sections. While you are given a lot of freedom to design your legislature, it will ultimately be grade by whether it supports the stated goal of the Preamble - i.e. a fair educational experience for all.