New Mexico has no formal high school page program, and one 15-year-old is asking lawmakers in Santa Fe to change that — raising the question of whether the next generation will learn how the republic actually works or just how to signal the right causes.
Aaron Valles Chavez, a sophomore at the Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science, laid out the gap in the Albuquerque Journal: teenagers in New Mexico have no statutory avenue to participate in state government before they turn 18. The YMCA-backed Youth and Government program exists, but it carries no official connection to the legislature. No backing by law. No formal pipeline. Meanwhile, other states have built real ones.
Florida pays pages ages 15–18 $250 or offers community-service credit for 40 hours of work, capped at one week. Pages draft legislation in a mock session. Virginia has placed students in the statehouse clerk's office since before the Civil War. Nevada goes furthest: its Youth Legislature is a two-year program where students write and pass real bills. Three have become actual Nevada law, including a measure granting amnesty to underage drinkers who call for medical help.
The cost need not be extravagant. Nebraska runs its program with existing staff. Washington limits each student to one week, keeping expenses predictable. A lean operation, Chavez argues, can still be transformative.
The stakes are real. Every session, New Mexico lawmakers debate how to build the next generation of leaders while offering no formal program to let those future leaders observe floor debates, deliver materials, or learn the mechanics of lawmaking from sitting legislators. The best chance to fix that, Chavez writes, is in that round building in Santa Fe.
But what kind of civic education would such a program deliver? That question hangs over every school-related debate right now, and a decision 1,200 miles away in Oakland illustrates the tension.
Bishop O'Dowd High School, a Catholic school in the Bay Area, announced it is pulling Pride and Progress flags from classrooms and replacing them with a school-created emblem called the "Inclusive O" — a large letter O splashed with Pride-flag colors. School President Kim Walsh said the symbol reflects commitment to every member of the community, including LGBTQ+ students and staff, according to the New York Post. But the flags had become a "lightning rod" last year, prompting a year of consultation.
The Post reported that supporters welcome the change as a way to represent the school's own identity rather than outside political or social imagery. Some parents said it better reflects traditional Catholic teachings. An alumni Instagram account disagreed, arguing that removing the flags "directly affects the LGBTQ+ population of the school by removing pieces of representation."
Two schools, two debates, one question: are we teaching students how constitutional self-government works — or just which symbols to fly? A page program that puts teenagers on the floor of a state senate, watching real votes on real bills, would be a start. Whether Santa Fe builds one that teaches the Founders' framework or simply another vehicle for progressive activism is an open question — and the answer will shape the leaders Chavez says his state desperately needs.
