Wauwatosa High School Teams Earn Trip to ‘We the People’ National Championship

For the 14th time in the past 15 years, Wauwatosa West High School has won the Wisconsin state championship in the We the People Competition. The team was followed closely by the team from Wauwatosa East High School, which took second.

Both schools will move on to the national championship, which will take place April 22-26, 2022. At that event, roughly 1,000 students from 48 classes will participate in 648 half-hour Zoom hearings. 

The Wauwatosa School District’s excellence in the We the People program dates back to the 1990s. The program promotes civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s upper elementary and secondary students. In the state competition, students took part in a simulated congressional hearing, where they “testified” before a panel of judges acting as members of Congress.

Students prepare to present on any two of three in-depth sets of questions about history, the Constitution, rights, and current events. They also must anticipate and prepare for follow-up questions from the judges in a cross-examination.

Last year, the Tosa West team finished fourth in the national competition, while Tosa East earned a Divisional Award for its performance.

To learn more about the We the People competition, visit https://www.civiced.org/we-the-people.