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The idea of making community service mandatory has been around for years. As I recall,it was first bruited in the 1980s, probably by Ted Kennedy.(At least , that's the first time I was old enough to read about it in the papers and magazines-it's no doubt an even older idea). Then as now, it was supposed to be a graduation requirement, though there were those who wanted it made mandatory for every single American citizen.

What killed it back then was a few leftists being too open about the "mind control" aspects of it : Somebody openly commented on what a great boost in would be for racial relations if white middleclass kids were required to serve in mostly black inner city communities . This was at the height of the crack craze, and there had been plenty of newstories about the police being very leery of going into to some of those same inner city communities. And wealthy white liberals publicly gloated about sending the children of poorer whites there, in the name of 'antiracism'. The whole idea was quietly shelved, but it keeps coming back every few years, like the energizer bunny.

In his collection of essays called Whistling Dixie, John Shelton Reed discusses the 1980s proposal. Beyond that, I don't know where details of the older plan could be found in print, outside the old papers of that time.