Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel want mandatory community service?; contradicts earlier statements; 100 hours/year in college

Yet more fun with Barack Obama's president-elect website change.gov, as the page change.gov/americaserves has this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

This "requirement" contradicts not only past statements, but another statement on change.gov. From the page "Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Plan for Universal Voluntary Public Service" at change.gov/agenda/service:

Obama and Biden will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year... Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year...

Not only is there a contradiction between pages, there's one in the last sentence, since usually getting money is associated with being able to opt in or out.

Note that the change.gov/agenda/service version is basically the same as the current version of barackobama.com/issues/service, the version in his "Blueprint for Change" PDF (accessed 2/11/08), and the 1/3/08 version of barackobama.com/issues/service.

So, which is controlling? Will children be "required", or is his program voluntary. Or, is it "voluntary", where hoops must be jumped through in order to avoid taking part?

Note also that in his 2006 book The Plan: Big Ideas for America (link), new BHO chief of staff and Representative Rahm Emanuel said:

It's time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service... Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They'll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we're hit by a natural disaster...

Now, see Barack Obama's "civilian national security force"

UPDATE: As pointed out by several others, the "U.S. government", also known as the part of BHO's campaign behind change.gov, has changed the language on the page at change.gov first discussed above to bring it more in line with the other language. And, they don't provide any indication that there was a change. Silently changing their website to match the new set of facts is something they've done before.

The part at change.gov/americaserves that changed was this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year.

That's now this:

Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.

The last is basically the same as in their PDF and what's at change.gov/agenda/service.

Politics · Fri, 11/07/2008 - 09:11 · · Importance: 9