Ack... That makes me cringe. In my school district (in MD) you are required to have 75 hours of community service hours to graduate high school. It's also nearly impossible to earn them doing something interesting - most people resort to sorting books or working at a library or something.
100 hours of community service in college every year? That'd really sucks. It may not seem like a lot, but it is if they're spent on drudgery...
I understand where you are coming from, we had a 40 hour requirement at my high school.
But I can't help but feel you aren't being creative enough or looking hard enough. I mean I'm sure homeless shelter's need volunteers, as do toy donations for under privileged children, political campaigns need volunteers (see Louie Mantia's contribution to the Obama campaign here: http://louiemantia.com/blog/?p=31), and so do Boys & Girls clubs.
Not to mention taking 1-2 weeks off and helping people in other countries.
1 or 2 weeks off from high school isn't really an option, if you're the type that cares about grades. A friend of mine got stuck in India after a vacation (passport troubles) for nearly 2 weeks, and had a rather difficult time afterwards.
However, I'm one of the lucky few here. :) I'll manage to get the community service hours by being a sysop for my school, i.e. managing the Ubuntu server that runs a significant part of the school technology infrastructure.
We needed 75 hours in FL for the bright futures scholarship. I joined the local volunteer fire station and got my first responder cert. from the county. It's not always boring.
Well that's good, but it doesn't scale. If twelve kids in the county want to do volunteer work then it's easy to find places for them, but if five thousand kids in the county need to do volunteer work they can't all be accommodated in "sensible" programs.
I believe, but I'm not for certain, that developing a plan includes also coming up with new and helpful ways to do community service, not just a "here, 50 hour requirement, go have fun." That's something the Bush admin would do, I sure hope an Obama admin won't.
I also don't think its necessarily the best thing to do... perhaps he should give incentives to school districts that implement such a system but make the school districts responsible for it.
That's something the Bush admin would do, I sure hope an Obama admin won't.
I think you're doomed to be repeatedly disappointed over the coming years as we all remember that government incompetence isn't some weird temporary anomaly, it's just the way things are.
Look at the flip side - if your small business provides a way for high school students to do something useful for you, and it is both somewhat fun and counts as "community service", then perhaps you have access to a nearly free source of labor.
100 hours of community service in college every year? That'd really sucks. It may not seem like a lot, but it is if they're spent on drudgery...