Elizabeth Marshman steps to the microphone during a presentation she and Vikas Murali, Andrew Tschirhart and Miles Lubin gave to the Board of Education Monday night. The four Staples High School students won the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge for their solution to keeping Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jennifer Connic for WestportNow.com
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Four students at Westport’s Staples High School Monday night showed off the project that won them the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge and the $20,000 top prize.
The students, who appeared at a Board of Education meeting, included seniors Elizabeth Marshman, Vikas Murali, Andrew Tschirhart and junior Miles Lubin.
They were tops among 129 teams and more than 500 students competing from the New York metropolitan area.
The students had to use their math skills to craft a proposal to make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. The finals of the competition were held last week in Manhattan. (See WestportNow April 7, 2006)
During Monday night’s presentation, they reviewed the different formulas and graphs they used in determining their answer—that people either have to work until they are 70 years old or be taxed 18 percent instead of 13 percent of their salary.
Tschirhart said their formulas showed that Social Security would become insolvent in 2044, which is close to the estimate of 2041 by federal officials.
Using the same formulas, he said, raising the retirement age to 70 years old would make Social Security usable for at least 75 years.
Also, using the same formula, he said, raising the tax rate to 18 percent would accomplish the same goal.
Staples Principal John Dodig said the answers to Social Security are not rocket science—although the calculations may seem as such—but politicians are afraid to say what the students concluded.
He wrote a number of politicians and television network programs saying they should invite the students as guests to share their findings.
“Here are four teenagers with nothing to gain with the solution,” he said. “I hope one of them responds.”
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon said the project is part of what teachers try to do throughout the district.
They have students use their skills to research real-world problems and craft solutions, he said.
Landon said Marshman and Tschirhart will both attend Yale University in the fall, and Murali is deciding between the University of Pennsylvannia and Columbia University.
Lubin will return for his senior year at Staples, he said.
