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Diane Watson (CA-33)

Youth Violence Legislation – To Increase Community Service for Students At Risk of Academic Failure

By Congresswoman Diane E. Watson

Tighter budgets have forced school administrators across the nation to cut back on extracurricular activities.   Students most affected by declining school budgets for extracurricular activities are those attending alternative public schools, designed for at-risk students who have been asked to leave regular public schools usually for disciplinary reasons.  Many alternative/transition schools do not have sports and other after school programs, which have been shown to deter students from crime, gang activity, and illicit drug use. 

My legislation provides alternative schools a resource and incentive for creating after-school programs.   It instructs the Secretary of Education to make grants to state educational agencies for the purpose of making sub- grants to alternative schools that agree to implement a community service requirement.   Students participating in the program are required to complete a minimum of 100 internship hours in the community each year. 

Local businesses and companies will be invited to participate in the community service program.  Those participating will be eligible for a community service federal tax deduction.  In addition, it provides a business with a larger tax exemption if it offers a job to a student who has completed his or her community service hours.

Structured after-school activities have a proven record of reducing the level of youth and gang violence.  My legislation will provide some of our nation’s more at-risk children of academic failure with a new opportunity to participate in a structured activity.   It will promote a win-win collaboration among school administrators, at-risk students, and local businesses.