Obama mandates public service

I told people about this and the didn't believe me, but now it's up on Change.gov ( His office of the President-elect website).

America Serves

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

OK, unlike some people I don't absolutely find the idea of some form of mandatory public service completely repellent. The Germans have required it for years, but this seems to go to far. First off I don't think it's appropriate to have middle schooler involved in something like this. Aside from just gathering them all together so that child molesters can take their pick, this smacks of political indoctrination. At least most hight school students are so sullen and anti-social the indoctrination probabaly won't take. College students - well I could see it as a requirement for a Pell grant or something but this makes it sound like a blanket requirement. Does this apply to both public and private universities? I doubt it. What if you have already done a term in the service, are you still required to sign up to pick up trash or wipe old peoples butts?

It will be interesting to hear what the yes we can hopey changey types have to say when they have to start giving up part of their weekend to fulfill the community service requirements.