Community
service mandate begins as pilot program
Codey enacts requirement for high
school graduation, to be tried in 30 districts
Saturday, September 10, 2005 • BY JOHN MOONEY •
Star-Ledger Staff
More than a decade after he proposed it,
acting Gov. Richard Codey launched a plan yesterday that
could ultimately require all New Jersey high school students
to take part in community service.
The state's program at this point will be
a pilot in 30 districts and require their high school
juniors to participate in at least 15 hours of service for
the school year. The districts have yet to be
chosen.
"Our schools, which teach our children
math and English, should also be a place where they learn
the value of community service," Codey said in Hasbrouck
Heights, where he signed the program into law.
"Kids learn what they live," he said.
"And by teaching them the values of giving back to the
community now, they will carry these lessons with them into
adulthood."
Codey, who first proposed a statewide
requirement as a state senator in 1991, said he hopes it
will go statewide once the pilot runs its three-year course.
The New Jersey Education Association has resisted the
statewide requirement, raising the age-old concerns about
making the community service mandatory.
"I can't understand that in any way,
shape or form," Codey said of the opposition. "But the pilot
lessens the impact. If we can prove that it is successful,
it does work, then we can expand it throughout the
state."
Even on a pilot basis, New Jersey would
join only Maryland in requiring community service in
schools. But a number of districts and especially private
schools in the state have their own requirements. For
instance, North Valley Regional High School in Bergen County
demands 125 hours of service from seniors in their final
weeks of school.
Three years ago, Hasbrouck Heights High
School began requiring a total of 30 hours for the four
years of high school. Codey picked the school for the
bill-signing yesterday to let the students themselves talk
about the value of their service.
Andrea Algauer, a senior, described
projects through the school's Key Club in which students did
landscaping on the borough's main boulevard, raised money
for ill children and hosted programs for the community's
senior citizens.
"Not only do the students prosper and
gain from the community service, but the community gains
from the students," she said.
Yet there also was a dose of reality
offered by the students, including one junior who directly
questioned Codey about the merits of mandating such
service.
Kaitlin Olcott, 16, said she herself
worked at Hackensack University Medical Center and found it
a good experience. But she afterward conceded she stopped at
30 hours, and that many students participate "because they
have to, to get it over with."
"Volunteering should be on your own," she
said. "You should do it because you want to."
Codey said his program is not meant for
those who would do it on their own.
"It's for students who could care less;
maybe it could turn their attitude," he said. "These are the
students who I want to reach."
Hasbrouck Heights does not require the 30
hours to graduate. But last year, in the first full year of
the requirement, the district did not allow seven students
who fell short on their hours to participate in the
commencement ceremony, according to Superintendent Joseph
Luongo.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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