Councilman Gioia Proposes Mandatory Public Service for Students

Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) and representatives from City Year, New York Cares, Common Cause NY, and Big Brothers Big Sisters gathered at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Sunday, Jan. 18.
Councilman Gioia Proposes Mandatory Public Service for Students
Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) talks to students and organization volunteers at the Church of St. Francis Xavier soup kitchen about requiring community service in High Schools. (Catherine Yang/The Epoch Times)
Catherine Yang
1/18/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/gioia.JPG" alt="Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) talks to students and organization volunteers at the Church of St. Francis Xavier soup kitchen about requiring community service in High Schools. (Catherine Yang/The Epoch Times)" title="Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) talks to students and organization volunteers at the Church of St. Francis Xavier soup kitchen about requiring community service in High Schools. (Catherine Yang/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1826749"/></a>
Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) talks to students and organization volunteers at the Church of St. Francis Xavier soup kitchen about requiring community service in High Schools. (Catherine Yang/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens) and representatives from City Year, New York Cares, Common Cause NY, and Big Brothers Big Sisters gathered at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Sunday, Jan. 18.

Gioia proposed that New York City create a requirement of 20 hours of community service for high school graduation, inspired by President-Elect Barack Obama’s calling the nation to service in his Inauguration and Mayor Michel Bloomberg’s pledging to encourage public service at the State of the City address delivered last week.

To help foster volunteerism in New York City, and to help diversify the education New York’s school children receive, Gioia is proposing a pilot program that would mandate that New York City high school juniors and seniors perform 20 hours of community service before graduation. Starting their junior year, students would have to perform a total of 20 hours over two years at Department of Education approved institutions, such as non-profits, hospitals, cultural institutions, and community organizations.

“It wouldn’t require legislation,” said Gioia, “Just a change in policy in the Department of Education.”

The proposed amount of 20 hours in this pilot program is considered fairly low.

“We don’t want it to be an impediment to graduation in any way,” Gioia said. He says the idea is to start with a low amount, and then increase the requirement over time.

Other cities in the U.S. have similar programs. In Seattle, 60 hours of service are required for high school graduation, in Chicago 40, Maryland 75, and Washington D.C. 100. Los Angeles introduced service as part of the curriculum in 1999.

There are currently only over 90 public high schools in New York City with mandatory community service, out of over 400. By making service mandatory, Gioia says New York City would become exemplary in this area.
 
“Community service in high school has been shown to increase voter participation, but its effects are felt even more broadly,” said Chris Keeley, Associate Director of Common Cause NY. “First-hand community service encourages not only increased participation in elections, but life long civic engagement. Proposals such as this help to reinvigorate democracy and strengthen New York’s communities.”

“There’s no shortage of energy and enthusiasm in the kids,” said Meghan Moloney, Senior Director of Programs from New York Cares.

“Young people are becoming the head of the household, though not financially,” Gioia said. He says they might be the first in their family to graduate from a university, the ones reading the documents for their parents, and that he see’s that it’s actually the young people telling their parents how important it is to vote.

“Your generation gets to lead the way,” he said to high school students present on Sunday.
Students were present from about five different high schools, including Harlem Renaissance, Martin Luther King, and St. John’s.

Cassandra L. Agredo, Director of Xavier Mission, says that about twenty different private schools do have community service programs that send their students to help out with the soup kitchen regularly. Many private schools already have service requirements, but are not governed by the Department of Education, where this new twenty-hour policy is being suggested.

Gioia has asked schools Chancellor Joel Klein to make community service mandatory for high school graduation. Gioia asked Klein for graduation requirements to include 20 hours of volunteer work, which could include activities such as cleaning parks to serving on a neighborhood revitalization board, according to Gioia.

“The service requirement would invest high school students with a spirit of volunteerism and the knowledge that they can make a measurable difference in their neighborhoods and the world,” Gioia said.

Community service has shown to be beneficial to both the community and to students. In Maryland, studies have shown that students who participate in community service or service learning have demonstrated academic growth and development, along with increasing their teamwork and problem solving skills. In Los Angeles, service learning has improved class attendance and engagement, along with improved critical thinking and academic achievement.

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civil Learning and Engagement, community service has a measurable impact on students. Community service:

· Increases scholastic progress 3.3% in history related classes, and 6.7% in reading.
· Increases math scores by 4.6% and 5.9% for science.
· Is a strong indicator of adult voting and volunteering.
· Enhances odds of college graduation by 22%.

Community service requirement in Chicago schools started with the sophomore class in September 1998. It was fully implemented beginning with the graduating class of 2001. Since implementation, graduation rates in Chicago schools have risen nearly 8% from 47.2% in 2001 to 55.1% in 2007. Maryland, which requires 75 hours of community service, has the 2nd highest total graduation rate in the country at 74.7%.