Watching Barack Obama’s inauguration speech yesterday, I was struck by the following words: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big, or too small, but whether it works.” When I think of the most important goals of the U.S. Public Service Academy, I think of making government work better, by making it more efficient and training future leaders in the public sector. Some people (e.g. libertarians) may prefer smaller government, while others (e.g. progressives) may prefer larger government, but it seems that most of us can agree that we want a government that works.  Building the U.S. Public Service Academy is one way to invest in a government that works because we are investing in its future leaders.