[quote]As President, I will launch a new Social Investment Fund Network. It’s time to get the grass roots, the foundations, the faith-based organizations, the private sector and the government at the table so that we can learn from our own success stories. We’ll invest in ideas that work; leverage private sector dollars to encourage innovation; and expand successful programs to scale. Take a program like the Harlem Children’s Zone, which helps thousands of kids in New York through after-school activities, mentoring, and family support. We need to make that model work in different cities across America. And just as we support small businesses, I’ll start a new Social Entrepreneur Agency to make sure that small non-profits have strong support from Washington.
Finally, we need to integrate service into education, so that young Americans are called upon and prepared to be active citizens.
Just as we teach math and writing, arts and athletics, we need to teach young Americans to take citizenship seriously. Study after study shows that students who serve do better in school, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to maintain that service as adults. So when I’m President, I will set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year. This means that by the time you graduate college, you’ll have done 17 weeks of service.
We’ll reach this goal in several ways. At the middle and high school level, we’ll make federal assistance conditional on school districts developing service programs, and give schools resources to offer new service opportunities. At the community level, we’ll develop public-private partnerships so students can serve more outside the classroom.
For college students, I have proposed an annual American Opportunity Tax Credit of $4,000. To receive this credit, we’ll require 100 hours of public service. You invest in America, and America invests in you - that’s how we’re going to make sure that college is affordable for every single American, while preparing our nation to compete in the 21st century.[/quote]
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Should public service be taught? Required?
Being a volunteer is nothing new. Lots of people do it. Lots of older people do it more and more these days. But if so many older boomers are volunteering, why the need to institutionalize volunteerism in school-age children? Is there such a need for free “character building” labor?
Smarter people and college educated people perform more free labor/ volunteerism than those who do not do well in school or graduated from college. So by making public service a requirement, Obama will achieve…er…higher numbers of volunteers? Or all this government forced and sponsored character building with help modern youth take a more active role in society?
I seem to remember as a teen NOT enjoying people making me do things that built character. maybe times have changed and the fatbellied American teen apesloth need only a nudge in the right direction. Or the Left if you will.
And if the middle and high schools do not provide the free teen labor for their local communities to take advantage of, the federal government with deny or take away funding. So, federal funding for education will be denied when the schools do not offer their students’ free labor to the local government?
Won’t this mean that those students who do not get funding will receive ostensibly a poorer education and may not finish college, which would make them less likely to do actual REAL volunteer work in their community?
Or is Obama trying to nip the whole volunteer thing in the bud? NGOs always moan about being understaffed and underfunded. So Obama pimps out…sorry, supplies an endless stream of free labor to ngos and local volunteer programs and pays off the school systems who ensure the supply side.
As for the last part, giving college kids a 4k deal for doing public service. Good. Most of the pub service jobs one can do high anyway.
Bottom line. America is the most generous and giving country on the Earth. Why institutionalize it? Why threaten already underfunded schools with cuts if they don’t supply a free line of human credit to local do-gooders?