COMMUNITY SERVICE FLIM-FLAM

When it comes to devising inventive ways to use taxpayer time to lobby
the state for more money, the teachers unions and the schools in
Montgomery and Prince George's County are unsurpassed. In P.G. County,
schools will be closing two hours early on Monday so that teachers can
attend a rally for the Thornton plan, a multiyear funding initiative
enacted two years ago that will provide $1.3 billion in additional
money for Maryland public schools through 2008. And, as this newspaper
reported last Friday, Montgomery County schools are encouraging
students to earn community-service credits by participating in the
rally with their teachers.

According to a message that appeared on the county public school
system Web site, students can receive credit for two hours of
community service by attending the rally.

Under a measure approved by the State Board of Education in 1992,
county students are required to perform community service as a
graduation requirement. "Community service" is defined by local school
districts. In Montgomery County, students are required to perform 60
hours of community service, including "advocacy" work, which "involves
activities which provide opportunities for students to lend their
voices and talents to correct a problem or an injustice."

In 2000, two Walter Johnson High School students were able to meet the
community-service requirement by performing clerical work for the
Marijuana Policy Project, a Capitol Hill-based organization that
favors the legalization of marijuana.

This time, the school system and teachers union political advocacy
types are mobilizing county students to head to Annapolis to lobby
Gov. Robert Ehrlich and the General Assembly in favor of the Thornton
plan. Mr. Ehrlich (who quite rightly opposes efforts by Democrats in
the legislature to force him to increase taxes ) -- has said that,
given the General Assembly's refusal to approve slot machines, he has
no choice but to reduce funding for many programs, including education
- -- one of the largest items in the state budget.

The governor proposes to increase K-12 education funding by $326
million in fiscal 2005, for a total of $3.6 billion.

So, the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), which refuses to let
this "injustice" stand, is using its Web site to mobilize students to
come to Annapolis to lobby and get their course credits.

It tells students that they can contact unions and advocacy
organizations like the Montgomery County Education Association and the
local PTA if they need transportation to Annapolis.

Something has gone badly wrong here. Certainly, anyone who wants to
lobby their elected officials on their own time and their own dime is
free to do so. But the main focus of the public schools should be
equipping students with basic skills in areas like reading and
mathematics. To the extent that a "public service" requirement should
exist in the schools at all, it should be limited to genuine
charitable works, such as working in a nursing home or a hospital --
not political advocacy. Using the lure of academic credit to bribe
public school students to become good, little political commissars, a
la MCPS, is the wrong way to go.