Good counter-points. For our family I was at first a bit put-off by my son having to do “community service projects” for school. But, it can be for church, helping a neighbor out with chores, helping at a school function, etc. Whatever he wants to do - and stuff that he does anyway.
But - your points are very good, and I can see where this might be difficult for many families.
I forgot to leave the link to where this was argued.- The Volokh Conspiracy’s Jim Lindgren: “it would be the public schools that would impose federal standards of coerced service on each child as part of their requirements for graduation. For students, service would be involuntary. Even for the public schools, their participation would be only nominally voluntary – for how many public schools can survive without federal assistance?”
http://mattjohnston.blogspot.com/2008/08/jim-lindgren-on-obamas-community.html