Two students from Traverse City East Junior High School have recently had their work published in the Detroit Free Press. As part of its Newspaper in Education program, the Detroit Free Press invited Michigan teachers to have students in Grades 6 – 12 write letters to the editor or draw editorial cartoons on three topics. This year there were 1, 071 letter entries and 393 cartoons.

On March 13, 2007 ninth grader Sarah West had her editorial cartoon published on page 8A.  The cartoons and letters published on this day were in response to a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., to reinstate a military draft for Americans aged 18-42. 

On March 14, 2007 ninth grader Alyssa Hartman’s editorial letter was published on page 10A. The letters and cartoons covered on this day dealt with the topic: What practical steps can the United States take to begin reducing its dependence on foreign oil, which leads to costly foreign entanglements? The excerpt from Alyssa’s entry follows:

 Be ready with flex-fuel cars

More and more new cars on the roads are flex-fuel vehicles; they can run on ethanol. This fuel is made from corn and a few other crops grown in the United States, along with only 15% gasoline (giving it the name E85). It would greatly benefit farmers, allowing them to gain profit and even expand their farms. While many alternatives, like fuel-cell and electric cars, are too expensive at the moment, ethanol could be affordable to the public. Most important, using ethanol would reduce our dependence on countries in the Middle East.

Please contact Traverse City East Junior High School Principal Glenn Solowiej at 933-7300 for more information.