gracyecheng's blog

Gracye Cheng is a junior at Harvard University. She chairs The Roosevelt Institution's National Editorial Board and is an intern at the U.S. Public Service Academy.

It’s wonderful that service has become a buzz word for the Obama administration. During his campaign, Obama emphasized that his administration would be one of service, and he took his first political steps in making that vision a reality when he called for the passage of the SERVE America act during his State of the Union address. Over 5 years, the SERVE America act would funnel more than $1 billion dollars into myriad programs that would encourage volunteering at the high school and college levels.

In this atmosphere, it’s unsurprising that other service bills are popping up: the Summer of Service Act would fund projects for students transitioning to high school; the Semester of Service Act wants to implement similar programs that would give academic credit to high school students; the ENCORE Service Act would encourage volunteering amongst those over 50; the Incentive to Serve Tax Act would provide tax breaks in exchange for community service.

But the plethora of service bills, while worthy causes, still neglect an entire domain of service: public service. The relatively low buzz is perhaps reflective of the current esteem for government service: for years, government work has been caricatured as bureaucratic and derided as inefficient. According to a study by the Financial Times, even in programs like Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where service-oriented careers are emphasized, the percentage of graduates who enter public service following graduation has dropped by half in just one generation.

It would be a shame if this administration, with its emphasis on creating incentives for public service as well as in ensuring efficient and transparent government, failed to create the Public Service Academy, a proposal that would convey youth talent into good government for generations to come.

Basically, the Public Service Academy would create a civilian counterpart to our military academies: instead of leaders for armed services, the Academy will teach America’s best and brightest how to be effective and efficient leaders in local, state, and national government. By competing in an admissions process akin to the military academies, students would earn a four-year scholarship to study liberal arts as well as a specific public service field, such as education, emergency management, or energy & environment.

At its full capacity, the Academy would serve approximately 5000 students a year, and, upon graduation, students will serve for five years in areas of critical need, which will be determined by the Academy’s placement office in collaboration with government agencies across the nation. Graduates might find themselves teaching in a rural school in Mississippi, for instance, or working for FEMA.

In other words, mandating the creation of a Public Service Academy this year—the bill is set to be dropped in the 111th Congress in the next few weeks—will ensure that, within the decade, a fresh crop of talented and well-trained leaders will be entering public service at every level. Key players within the Obama administration already support the idea: Rahm Emanuel and Joe Biden both signed on to support the Academy last year, and Hillary Clinton was the leading sponsor of the proposal in the Senate.

As 90% of top-level federal employees become eligible for retirement in the next ten years, and shortages in hospitals, classrooms, and police departments are projected for cities and towns across the country, the United States will need these leaders to make our government work again.

The best legacies—because they seek to accomplish so much—are also often contentious. Take West Point, for instance. Now one of the most respected military and leadership academies in the world, West Point—which, like a national college for civilian leaders, was originally conceived by Washington—originally faced criticism that it would serve only to train an aristocratic military elite. When it finally opened—in 1802, 20 years after Washington’s proposal—skeptics tried to undermine and close the academy for decades. It was only after the Civil War, when West Point graduates took on various positions of command, that the institution was cemented as an invaluable American institution.

Similarly, although the Public Service Academy has wide bipartisan support—last year, the bill racked up 123 sponsors in the House from both sides of the aisle, and 24 likewise diverse supporters in the Senate—it has also faced critics that are generally afraid of perceived high costs and bigger government.

The Public Service Academy would call for a $205 million appropriation per year. That’s about 70 cents a year from each American to run a flagship institution that would produce continual returns for our country. In the context of what was proposed in the stimulus, the Academy each year would cost less than $650 million for a digital television converter box coupon program, the $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters, and $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees, according to CNN. No matter your opinion on these proposals, the point is that our government certainly can afford to build and run a Public Service Academy.

And not only would students of the academy would be replacing retiring baby boomers, but well-trained leaders will make government more efficient—better, not bigger.

But yes, the general argument behind its critics’ fears is true: the U.S. Public Service Academy certainly requires significant economic and governmental investment—and supporters of the bill should not shy away, but rather, champion this fact.

Indeed, that’s part of the point. Proposed and existing scholarship programs, tax breaks or financial aid incentives that encourage public service, while important, fail to send as clear and salient a message: public service is a priority not for the select few who are interested in—and thus are likely to seek out—these programs, but for every citizen.

In establishing an institution devoted to public service, the government sends the message that public service is important to the country and should be invested in. By supporting the creation of the Academy, citizens can truly demonstrate their belief in the better government that they’ve called for.

This piece is also posted on The Roosevelt Institution's blog