News-Record.com

Tuesday's No. 2 editorial.

Sen. Tony Rand’s intentions are good. But his bill is not.

Wanting to help at-risk youth, the Cumberland County lawmaker has introduced legislation that would require North Carolina college students to mentor public school students.

Students working toward a bachelor’s degree in public and private colleges in the state would have to spend 20 hours a semester tutoring or mentoring a public school-age student.

In an age of budget-tightening, maybe Rand thinks the ever-renewing field of college students is a rich resource to tap. But putting Rand’s plan into action would be more problem than payoff.

Rand proposed the bill in honor of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Eve Carson and Duke’s Abhijit Mahato, who were slain earlier this year. Carson had mentored middle-school students in Durham, doing the community service work Rand wants all college students to provide.

But not all students are going to have the talents or temperament of Carson. Just because she did a good job as a mentor doesn’t mean all — or even most — college students would.
Also, college students’ priority should be getting themselves through school. Time already is tight for many college students, especially those who are working. Putting more on them may cause them to do less well on their own classroom work.

A mentoring program of this magnitude also could be a headache for school systems. Burdened with too many programs, they shouldn’t have another one foisted upon them.
If legislators want to support a mentoring program for at-risk youth, they should instead look at expanding the Minority Male Mentoring Initiative now being run in a few of the state’s community colleges. It pairs faculty with students at risk of dropping out, providing those students with scholarships and extra services. Students in the program often go on to be providers of community service.

Expanding this successful program to more community colleges would be better than passing Rand’s well-meaning, but misguided, bill.