Comments on: America Got Served

By: dayne

dayne — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Just an FYI — the idea of chain gang’s on the side of the road doing work — yeah, we do that now in America.

Where I grew up in (eastern) Washington it was common place to see somebody in the classic black-n-white striped suit mowing the city lawn, or painting a building.

And you know what? I don’t have a problem with that.

By: Hank

Hank — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Me neither. I grew up with that in Oregon too, but they don’t do it here in MD. I don’t understand…

By: Geet

Geet — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Having the _option_ of a $4K tuition-credit for service sounds neat, and I can see why the word "require" is concerning (and mentioned before on their campaign website: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/service/).

A credit like that would probably make the largest difference for those going to public universities without much aid at all (average tuition is around $7K, I believe) or community colleges.

This being said, since real details of this plan have not been hashed out yet, I’m being careful to not read too much into these feel-good campaign blurbs.

"Recipients of the [$4K] credit will be required to conduct 100 hours of community service" (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/education/) is, I think, the most reasonable interpretation. I don’t foresee college students being _required_ to do 100 hours of community service in order to receive their diploma.

Funny how the text changed so quick!