In this week’s Newsweek, Jonathan Alter warns President-elect Obama: “Don’t muffle the call to serve.” With all the concern about the economy and all the attention on the economic stimulus package, Alter writes, Obama and his allies in Congress may be tempted to delay or even forget entirely about his plans to expand national service programs. Alter is right — national service programs are “people-ready” and should be considered an essential part of our national infrastructure.

Too bad that Alter focuses only on the programs offered by AmeriCorps without mentioning the need to recruit and retain a new generation of young people to go into government work as a career, not simply a short-term, volunteer affair. The renewed interest in government — more than 300,000 people have applied for administration jobs — gives Obama the opportunity to build a lasting institution focused on developing civilian leaders for generations to come: the Public Service Academy. The Academy will endure long after the inaugural excitement fades. It would be too bad if Obama were to let this opportunity pass.