Students at Evergreen High School in Washington learned that policymaking is sometimes a group effort that spans the course of several years.

In January 2006, students participating in the We the People state competition visited the state legislature. They met with Rep. Deb Wallace, member of the House Education Committee, who asked the students what needed "fixing" in education. The students said that courses in Washington state history were boring and should be more relevant. In January 2007, Wallace introduced a bill to reinvigorate classes in Washington state history. The bill died in committee.

That same fall, another group of students prepared for the We the People program but felt unprepared to answer questions that asked them to compare the U.S. Constitution to their state's constitution because their prior state history courses did not focus on the state constitution, state government, or how a citizen can and should engage in the state's affairs.

Several of those same students had also participated in  Project Citizen. They wrote the broad outlines of a bill to require the teaching of state government, economics, and politics. Wallace agreed to sponsor the bill again in the 2008 session.

The class met with an official at the Department of Public Instruction, who endorsed their proposal. They also met with State Senator Craig Pridemore to ask him to be the Senate sponsor of the bill. They were later invited to testify before the House and Senate education committees. The bill, HB 2781, passed both the state House and Senate. Students from both classes were present at its signing on March 27, 2008.