Hi all,

Today’s been an exciting day: Chris, Melissa, Kristen and I went to the Education & Labor Committee’s hearing on the national service bill. It was wonderful to hear all the witnesses talk about the experience with volunteerism and service (you can watch the hearing here). The very accomplished witnesses included Managing Editor of TIME Magazine Richard Stengel, President of Echoing Green Cheryl Dorsey, and Usher.

During his testimony, Stengel gave the U.S. Public Service Academy a mention as one part of TIME’s “10-point plan for universal national service”:

9. Start a National-Service Academy
Picture West Point, but instead of learning how to fire an M-4 and reading The Art of War, students would be studying the Federalist papers and learning how to transform a failing public school. Conceived by two former Teach for America corps members, Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond, the U.S. Public Service Academy would give undergraduates a four-year education in exchange for a five-year commitment to public service after they graduate. The idea is to provide a focused education for people who will serve in the public sector — either the federal, state or local government — and thereby create a new generation of civic leaders. Asch and Raymond were so dismayed by the government’s response to Katrina that they wanted to create a new generation of people who were idealistic about government. “We need an institution that systematically develops leadership,” says Asch. “We need to elevate it in the eyes of young people so we can attract the best and the brightest.” The idea has been endorsed by New York Senator (and now Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton and Pennsylvanian Republican Senator Arlen Specter, who introduced the Public Service Academy Act in March 2007.  The legislation would allocate $164 million per year for the envisioned 5,000-student academy.

With all this buzz around public service, now is really time to push for the U.S. Public Service Academy—especially because the Public Service Academy Act will be reintroduced in Congress in the next few weeks. You can get in touch with us at the national office to see how you can help, join the national youth council, sign the petition, and, of course, give your congressmen a call to ask them to support the bill.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Whereas, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina illustrated the importance of volunteerism and public service, and exposed serious weaknesses in education, health care, law enforcement, emergency management, and other critical public sector fields at the local, state, and national levels; and

Whereas, many areas in our nation remain underserved and, as a result, are most affected by a lack of qualified, committed, and mobilized public servants in times of crisis; and

Whereas, the high cost of undergraduate education and the comparatively modest salaries of many important public sector posts deter many students from careers in public service…

[We aim to] better prepare the next generation of public servants to meet the austere domestic challenges our country will face in the near and distant future;

Now, Therefore I, Bill Richardson, Governor of the State of New Mexico, do hereby proclaim March 1, 2009 as U.S. Public Service Academy Day

Here’s an excerpt of a letter to the editor written by University of Arizona Senior Soo Chang that was recently published in the University of Arizona Daily Wildcat newspaper:

Public Service Academy would help civilians serve their country

Everyone’s heard about the Air Force Academy, the Naval Academy and the Military Academy. All of these great institutions work to help the national security of our country. But, what about the men and women who want to serve at home? The people who long to serve as civilians in the public sector?

In March 2007, Congress introduced a bill to create a U.S. Public Service Academy. Students who would attend this Academy would receive four years of subsidized education in return for five years of service in the community. Now, these people would become public school teachers, firefighters, policemen, relief effort workers, etc. A large majority of our workers go into the private sector because of school debt. The average student is $20,000 in debt after they graduate from college, as of 2007. We are also facing what is called a “federal brain drain” - meaning that more than 40 percent of all government workers are eligible for retirement in the next three years! What does this mean? Our public sector is slowly deteriorating. In the midst of this budget crisis, I believe that we as students of UA can relate to all the other students across this country who are facing similar monetary problems…

But think about this symbolically: an Academy that embodies civic virtue and community service, to cultivate young people who will be experts in their fields, to represent the U.S. public sector. I urge you all to sign the online petition if you believe in education and in the virtue of service.

More at the link below (just scroll down to the bottom of the page):

http://media.wildcat.arizona.edu/media/storage/paper997/news/2009/02/09/Opinions/Mail-Bag-3619251.shtml