Community Service - Mandated by Trenton?

Philly.com reports that community service requirements may be coming to a school near you:

Community service may have inched closer to becoming a graduation requirement for New Jersey high school students under a bill signed into law in the final days of the Corzine administration.

The legislation calls for a four-year study to start this fall at 15 high schools, including five in the southern third of the state. Under the pilot program, incoming freshmen will complete at least 20 hours of community service during their high school careers. The service must be unpaid and can take place inside or outside school.

Let me be clear on this. I think it is a good idea for High School students to perform community service activities in their community. I also believe that they should be driven by the student themselves, not some bureaucrat in Trenton.

This initiative falls into the "well meaning but misguided" category of legislation that is so prone in the legislature in Trenton. It usually starts with some new member of the assembly fresh off their promotion from town council or county freeholder. They get elected and think "what a good idea this or that would be". They then proceed to "lets make that a law and MAKE everyone in the state do it".

And there is a good reason for legislation like mandated community service if you are an assembly member (or senator for that matter). If you are busy working on trivial legislation like this, maybe no one will notice that you aren't handling the really important issue to the state. It is also a product of "full time legislators". If our state legislators spent a lot less time in Trenton, they wouldn't have the time for garbage legislation like this.

Read the Philly.com article here.

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