Editor's note: The deadline on this piece was extended due to the coronavirus crisis.

When Jonathan Guyer thinks of the typical high school essay contest, he gets annoyed.

The managing editor of the American Prospect, a bimonthly public policy magazine that centers on liberalism and progressivism, says the majority of book-based essay contests for teenagers tout the benefits of capitalism, but don’t give students the chance to understand how markets work in the first place.

“Famously, the Ayn Rand Institute’s essay competition has been an incubator for conservative thinking — former House Speaker Paul Ryan comes to mind,” Guyer says. “Some of our colleagues thought it was important to give students a similar crash course, except in how the economy really works, taking into account issues of race, class, and power.”

Rand, best known for her novels the The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which promoted her philosophy of individualism over collectivism, has been called the “darling of the U.S. right” by The Guardian. President Donald Trump has name-dropped her work, and Ryan credited the author for inspiration to go into public service. Ryan also gifted members of his staff with copies of Rand’s books, according to Politico.

But staffers at the American Prospect say young people should also be exposed to other philosophies and worldviews when they’re in high school. So they’ve launched an essay contest of their own.

The inaugural American Prospect contest will give high school students the chance to read one of four books focused on the economy’s intersection with poverty, race, democracy, and markets, and then submit an essay that explores “where the economy falls short and what we might do about it.”

“The point of this competition is not to pander to young readers by giving them easy reads,” Guyer explains. “We want to expose them to a challenging set of real-world narratives that every adult ought to consider.”

For high school freshman and sophomores, the books to choose from are Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, by Matthew Desmond, and Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich. Juniors and seniors can choose from Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few by Robert B. Reich, and The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration, by Isabel Wilkerson.

“These are all books that students might not necessarily get in the classroom,” Guyer says. “What’s it like to scrape by in the low-wage economy? What was the experience of the Great Migration? How are corporations driving government policy? We’re thrilled about the chance for students to think through these issues. Down the line, we’re going to need their help in solving them.”

According to the American Prospect’s executive editor, David Dayen, the 30-year-old magazine aims to use the contest as a way to expose progressive ideas to a younger generation.

Guyer points out that only 10% of the magazine’s readers are under the age of 24. "Most of our readers probably find us for the first time in college," he says. "We wanted to get the ideas we care about in front of high school students and to bring students’ own perspectives into our pages."

The winning essays will be selected by the magazine’s staff and prizes range from $2,500 to $10,000, along with 40 honorable-mention winners who will receive $100. Winning essays will be published online and in print, and the deadline is May 3.