Ex-Teacher Hopes to Create a Civilian Service Academy

January 07, 2009

Ex-Teacher Hopes to Create a Civilian Service Academy

A former teacher from Mississippi has worked for the past three years on plans to create the equivalent of West Point for government bureaucrats, according to The New York Times.

Chris Myers Asch’s plans for the Public Service Academy have gained the support of high-profile members of Congress, and he hopes President-elect Barack Obama’s interest in promoting public service bodes well for the realization of his dream. “There’s no doubt that we don’t have the best and brightest in government,” said Sen. Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who has joined Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, in sponsoring a bill to create a public-service academy.

(Free registration is required to view this article.)

Comments

We don’t have the “best and brightest” in Congress either, Sen. Specter. But the solution is to improve the quality of EXISTING programs (whether in law or public affairs) rather than creating new and expensive pet programs. There are wonderful MPA programs out there already. And it wouldn’t hurt to improve the pay of government workers — or was that last pay raise just for Members of Congress, Arlen?

— Public Affairs Professor Jan 7, 01:05 PM #
Don’t recreate!!

Not only are there existing public administration and government degree programs, some of the best ideas for government come from outside the institution.

And AmeriCorps—and all the wonderfully diverse things that AC members do (including degrees in teaching, business, etc.) following their service shows you don’t need a ‘Public Service’ degree to do good in the community & government.

Not to mention the expense of upkeeping yet another physical institution….

What about reframing this into something that coalesces the ideas of EXISTING programs?

— HB in Colorado Jan 7, 01:18 PM #
The previous comments miss the point of creating a Public Service Academy. An Academy would raise the visibility and prestige of public service as a field, thereby increasing the pool of young people who see public service as a viable career. Most of them would not go to the Academy, of course — only 1000 or so students would be admitted a year — so they would instead attend existing institutions. The Public Affairs professor seems to think that building the Academy somehow means neglecting existing institutions. How so? Why can’t existing institutions improve themselves?

AmeriCorps is a great program, and it is a good thing that President Clinton did not listen to the arguments that critics made in 1993 — arguments very similar to the ones HB uses. After all, why did we need to create a new institution called AmeriCorps? Could we not have incorporated it into existing programs? AC members, furthermore, do not focus on the public sector, nor are they committed to a career in public service.

The Public Service Academy promises something new and unique — not just another MPA program (it is for undergrads, for one thing — but a service-oriented, leadership development campus. Why is that so scary, particularly for people in existing PA programs? Could it be because the Academy would out-compete existing institutions?

— E Pluribus Unum Jan 13, 01:19 PM #

Commenting is closed for this article.

Previous: Donors and Foundations Try to Mitigate Madoff Losses
Next: Prospecting: Mixed Results for Corporate Giving