I have always supported the idea of direct democracy. So it's interesting to see the idea implemented as an elective class at a Rhode Island school, where students were given the decision on how to allocate $10,000 of funding. The amount of money is trivial, but the creation of agency is real. "The interesting thing about participatory budgeting is that the deeper you get into it, the more you quickly realize, it is not about the money... [the process] is a tool that can really create and strengthen your civic infrastructure." Of course, though, the money does matter, and that's the weak point in what has been tried thus far, because finding the funds has been the hardest part of the project.
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