Mayor Introduces Volunteer Requirement for Schools

New York, NY —

Mayor Bloomberg's new effort to expand volunteer opportunities in New York City also includes a requirement for the schools.

Starting this fall, every school in the city will have to provide a public service program. Volunteers from AmeriCorps will provide assistance in all 1500 schools. Beth Lubeck, principal of PS 132 in Williamsburg, says her pre-K to fifth grade students have been involved in community service for at least five years.

LUBECK: we do things from feeding homeless, to planting trees and flowers around the school and neighborhood to make it more beautiful, to recycling, to painting murals to exchange with other countries.

REPORTER: And Nine year old Anna Maria Gonzalez thinks volunteering pays off.

GONZALEZ: Because it helps, um, bring a better New York.

REPORTER: Her principal thinks it also leads to better academics. The Department of Education is urging schools to weave their public service plans into their educational plans... but students won't be graded on the activities.