Tahoma High School’s We the People program received $1,000 from King County on July 9.

According to a press release from the county, Reagan Dunn, a member of the King County Council who represents the ninth district, announced the program would receive money as part of a budget update adopted by the council.

“I’m proud to support this group of future leaders in continuing their educational endeavors,” said Dunn in the press release.

The $1,000 given to the program is intended to give students access to periodicals and civic books for their constitutional research, the release said. The money is also there to help “financially challenged” students attend the state competition.

According to Gretchen Wulfing, the educator who teaches this program at Tahoma, said this class — AP Government, We the People — is just one of the options each senior has in order to complete their requirement of taking a year-long civics class. She said this class is different than other classes.

“What they do is they — in simulated senate hearings — apply constitutional principles to current events. There is an eighth congressional district competition in usually November. If you win that, you move onto the state competition, which is at the State Capital in January and if you win that you end up going onto the National Competition, which is in Washington D.C., representing your state against the best school in every state,” Wulfing said.

Tahoma has represented Washington for the past 10 years, according to Wulfing. She said they have a strong record of doing well in the state competition, which takes place in Olympia.

Wulfing said if the students win at the state level, they move onto the national level of competition — which is where they represent Washington.

If students win at the National level, Wulfing said sometimes they are able to meet the president or the Supreme Court Justice, but it’s mostly about the recognition for being best in the nation.

Seven out of the 10 years that Tahoma has made it to nationals, they have made top 10 in the nation, Wulfing said.

The competition itself is pretty challenging, she said.

She said each class is divided into six different units and each unit represents different parts of the constitution.

“For instance, Unit 5 are the experts on the Bill of Rights. Unit 1 are the experts on the philosophical under pinnings of the Bill of Rights. Unit 4 does branches of government, etc. So they’re divided into these groups,” Wulfing explained. “For each competition, they’re given three different prompts and together they write a four minute essay answering the prompt and they popcorn read that to the judges. And then, which is the hard part, for six minutes judges — which these three judges are everything from state supreme court justices to members of congress to attorneys, to professors — fire questions at these students. They are graded on team work, participation, how they apply the constitution and then also how they apply current events.”

Although the competition itself can be quite difficult, Wulfing said she thinks this class is essential to preserving democracy.

“If students learn how to civicly engage with people of a different opinion, and the students learn how to seek opinions that are different than theirs, and try to process them, and if students really understand what the reasoning for the founding fathers (putting) together certain principles in our constitution and in our Bill of Rights, they will be able to preserve our republican democracy,” she said. “I think it’s also an important program because I have never seen a more meaningful, deeper, relevant curriculum ever. I think it is a transforming experience for these students. No matter who we are, it doesn’t matter what our specialty is, if you can engage in our democracy and have educated opinions and be able to listen to another point of view, it is what is essential to keeping our government the way the founders intended.”

The money that was given to “We the People” will be used for next year’s class, Wulfing said. She said she thinks the County has been involved in with the program in different ways, which is why they wanted to “do their part” to keep the program going.

Wulfing also said she is grateful to have the support from community members, the school district and the County.

“It’s just been fantastic that they have stood behind these constitutional warriors,” she said. “I hate to sound cliche, but it is life changing. When you watch these students as they walk in, they’re used to rope learning, and to suddenly have this much meaning in their learning is really exciting.”