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Illinois students may need
to do community service to graduate
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[OCT. 11, 2003]
SPRINGFIELD --
During a speech Thursday morning at the Copley First Citizen Award
Breakfast, Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich announced his plans to introduce
legislation that adds a community service requirement to the
eligibility standards for the Illinois Merit Recognition
Scholarship. In addition, the governor said his administration will
study the possibility of requiring every student in Illinois to
perform community service as a condition to graduating from high
school.
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"This breakfast gave
us the opportunity to take a look at what we, as a state, do to
inspire the value of public service in our children," said
Blagojevich. "Giving students incentives to perform well in school
is a good idea and something I wholeheartedly am for. But why not
take it a step further? Why not give them incentives to serve their
community?
"The service will
vary and differ depending upon where they live, what they like to do
and how they can best serve. But the values underlying each activity
remain the same: Our lives are only complete when our actions extend
beyond helping ourselves.
"Ideas come and go.
Trends come in and out of fashion. But it's the simple, basic values
that stand the test of time. They give us guidance, they give us
direction, they teach us how to live our lives," the governor added.
Blagojevich plans to
introduce legislation that changes the requirements for receiving
the Illinois Merit Recognition Scholarship to include a minimum of
50 hours of service to their communities. Currently, any students
who graduate in the top 5 percent of their class and attend an
Illinois public university are eligible to receive a one-time $1,000
merit scholarship.
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this article]
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Although the National
Center for Education Statistics Nationwide reports that 53 percent
of public schools in the United States require students to
participate in community service, if Illinois extends a service
requirement to high school students, it will become only the second
state in the country to do so. The first was Maryland. Chicago
Public Schools require all students to complete a 40-hour community
service requirement in order to graduate.
Activities could
range from working at a local library, volunteering at a senior
center, to picking up trash in a local park, to helping out at the
local hospital. But the values underlying each activity remain the
same: Our lives are only complete, when our actions extend beyond
helping ourselves," Blagojevich said.
"We'll study how the program has worked
in other places. We'll work with local school districts, teachers
and volunteer organizations. We'll talk to parents. We'll talk to
students. We'll do all of the research. But I must admit, the idea
is compelling," said the governor.
[Illinois
Government News Network
news release] |
