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By Mary M. Shaffrey
JOURNAL WASHINGTON BUREAU

School is out for the summer, but Davie High School history teacher Daric Beiter just spent two weeks in the nation’s capital learning more about how the government works.

“This has been a pretty amazing experience,” Beiter, 33, said during a lunchtime interview this week at a restaurant a few blocks from the Capitol.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, awarded Beiter the first spot in what she hopes will become the annual Teacher in Congress program.

Foxx said she had to receive special permission from congressional leaders to run the program, which gave Beiter a behind-the-scenes look at how Congress operates. The program paid him a $2,500 stipend from her office budget to help cover living expenses.

It was open to any public high-school teacher in the Fifth District. Over the past two weeks, Beiter met with the historians of the U.S. House and Senate, sat in on congressional hearings, visited the National Archives and the Library of Congress, and had a training session with officials from the Congressional Research Service, among other things.

The biggest lesson he learned, he said, is just how hard members of Congress and their staffs work. “You watch C-SPAN, and you see no one is there in the chamber and you wonder where they are. Now, I know. They are going to meetings. They have hearings. Everybody is working, and it’s not the typical schedule,” he said.

He noted one night in particular where he had expected to talk to Foxx about the day’s activities. At first they had hoped to talk before dinner, but Foxx was held up in meetings and hearings. By the time he and his wife, who was visiting, did get in to see her, it was 10:30 p.m.

“And after she talked to us for more than an hour, she still went back to work,” he said.

His biggest frustration, he said, was watching members of the House vote.

When the bells ring alerting members of a vote, they typically have 15 minutes to get to the House chamber and vote by electronic card. There are no assigned seats, and no rules regarding whether a member must sit or stand, or remain quiet. Typically Republican members will gather to the left of the speaker and Democrats to the right.

“As a teacher, I wanted them to sit down and shut up,” he said. “It was total chaos.”

Foxx said she started the program to fulfill a campaign promise she made when she first ran for Congress to give teachers a larger voice in her office. She said she also hoped by giving teachers insight into Washington, they might in turn encourage more young people to enter public life. She said she also hopes that teachers will become more familiar with the resources available to them and share this with their colleagues.