We the People State Finals
Lancaster’s Elizabethtown High School will be representing Pennsylvania at the 26th Annual We the People National Finals which will be held April 26-29, 2013 on the campus of George Mason University and in hearing rooms on Capitol Hill. Elizabethtown defeated three other state finalists on Thursday, February 7, 2013 at the National Constitution Center. Sponsored in Pennsylvania by the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, WTP promotes teaching and learning about the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Regularly rostered high school classes competed in person and virtually at the state finals before panels of judges that included lawyers from the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network, scholars from Community College of Philadelphia and Arcadia University, and a variety of community leaders expert in government and the law. Almost all of the judges were recruited through the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies, a major partner in the statewide WTP network.
The final results:
First place—Elizabethtown High School
Second Place—Strath Haven High School
Third Place—Marian Center High School
Fourth Place—Somerset High School
Jason Raia, WTP State Coordinator, noted how the program reflected the wide support for civic education in Pennsylvania. WTP is sponsored nationally by the Center for Civic Education which partners with a network of 50 state civics, government, and law programs located in state bar associations and foundations, universities, and other non-profit organizations to provide education and training on the constitution.
