Should the United States Create a Public Service Academy?

The New York Times reports on Chris Myers Asch’s campaign to create a civilian service academy — a West Point for bureaucrats.

What began on the back of an envelope found a champion in Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, legislative allies in the House and Senate, and a glimmer of plausibility in an age where President-elect Barack Obama pledges to “make government cool again” — the very words Mr. Asch has long used to sell his plan.

“The Public Service Academy can be Barack Obama’s Peace Corps,” Mr. Asch said. “He needs to take advantage of this moment when people are recognizing the importance of government and build institutions that will last.”

There is no word on whether Mr. Obama agrees, but the proposed academy has drawn past endorsements from the vice president-elect, Joseph R. Biden Jr.; the incoming White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel; and at least three cabinet nominees. People who once mocked Mr. Asch’s presumption now congratulate him on his timing.

The surprising ascent of Mr. Asch’s idea can be read as an upbeat tale of Washington’s openness to a citizen-advocate (Mr. Asch’s view) or evidence of its enduring weakness for expensive big-government schemes (as some of his critics contend). But it is also a sign of something more basic: the frustration Americans feel with the bureaucratic status quo.

A former elementary school teacher with black belts in two martial arts, Mr. Asch, 35, argues that American culture derides government work and dissuades bright young people from pursuing it. Campuses glorify material gain, he said, and even students who choose public service often enter the nonprofit world. The result, he argues, is weakened bureaucracies behind disasters as different as the Sept. 11 attacks and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Like its military counterparts, the United States Public Service Academy would offer a free four-year education in exchange for five years of government service. Supporters see both substantive and symbolic benefits: 1,200 skilled graduates a year, spread across federal, state and local agencies, and a flagship institution that would give new prestige to government work.

“Creating a public service academy would send a clear message that public service is a priority,” Mrs. Clinton said last week in a written statement.

Critics range from small-government conservatives who deride what they call “Bureaucracy U” to representatives of public administration schools, who say they already train people for government jobs. Some object to the proposed cost, $200 million a year. Some doubt whether the academy could compete with elite private schools for students and faculty members. Some warn of creating a clubby group of superbureaucrats. Many argue that an academy, however good, would not address the problems young people often see with government jobs. Those include a difficult application process, lower pay than some private-sector jobs, and civil service rules that emphasize seniority, making it hard for young workers to gain promotions.

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, president emeritus of George Washington University, notes that the country already has about 150 schools of public administration. (There is one named for him.) Rather than a civilian West Point, he suggests creating a civilian version of the Reserve Officer Training Corps — offering scholarships at existing schools in exchange for future service.

Mr. Asch notes that most of the public administration programs are for graduate students, who often take nongovernment jobs. He wants undergraduates to have “a whole campus of people who are committed to a shared mission.”

SS