Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, has submitted a bill that would require students from both public and private schools to mentor public school-age children in order to receive their bachelor’s degree.
The bill was submitted in honor of the death of Eve Carson and Abhijit Mahato, both students at North Carolina universities. In addition to honoring the memory of these students, the bill will supposedly help at-risk youth see successful, older students in action.
An unintended consequence of this feel-good bill is the reduction in student time spent on activities that the individual student values and would have picked up if they didn’t have this mandate from the state. This could be another service opportunity that they believe in, it could be studying, or it could be the creation of another campus group. It doesn’t really matter what this option is, under this bill, it won’t exist.
Instead of doing something that suits their desires and fits with their skills, students must now become model students and exceptional child communicators — even if they aren’t and never will be.
It’s unfortunate that this bill will probably be passed. It’s a tender-loving example of how good intentions can have bad results. And to think, if the state didn’t fund our schools to some degree, such a mandate wouldn’t be possible.
