2007 in review: A West Point for public service
A big new idea takes hold with NW lawmakers. An update on what happened since a proposal was first published in Crosscut.
A couple key lawmakers have endorsed the creation of a West Point for Public Service and embraced the delightfully parochial land-it-here message. This may not gladden the New Year's hearts of Crosscut readers who likened a U.S. Public Service Academy to a North Korean Re-education Camp for future transit wonks, but I still have time to assuage those paranoid concerns, yes?
The volunteer-factory theme ignited the interest of State Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-Snohomish), the Vice Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, and one of the Northwest's most creative and National Service-friendly lawmakers. Dunshee plans to introduce a resolution this session urging the state's Congressional delegation to support the USPSA and headquarter it somewhere in our bosky corner of North America. Only one other state legislature–New Mexico's–has passed anything similar. Bravo to Hans.
At a wedding in August, I cornered Rep. Norm Dicks, the Warren Magnuson manqué and dean of the state's Congressional delegation. Along with Seattle's Jim McDermott, Dicks serves on the House of Representatives' National Service Caucus (Jay Inslee, Dave Reichert, Adam Smith, join them, will you, please)? Flailing and shouting over the din of a Big Band, I came across as a kind of Viking berserker in a bad suit. To his credit, Norm didn't have me hauled away in leg irons.
"The Public Service Academy is a great idea," he said. "I support it."
Hoorah and kudos to Norm Dicks. It would also be a boon to the cause if he graduates to co-sponsor status.
Not everyone in the Washington delegation was so receptive, alas.
"And the cost of this?" Rep. Rick Larsen, my Congressman, asked.
"Zero," I lied. "Zero–give or take a little over $100 million."
When Larsen frowns he is a dead-on fortysomething version of the Swedish actor Max Von Sydow having a bad day. Larsen frowned.
Okay, Rick Larsen is right: The U.S. Public Service Academy will be expensive to start up. But this is a long-term investment, like our other service academies, that will produce young men and women committed to the greater good and service above self for generations to come. It's worth it.
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Comments:
Posted Wed, Dec 26, 2:35 p.m. inappropriate
Save us from the selfless bureaucrats: A school for "young men and women committed to the greater good and service above self"? I don't buy it. Scratch any self-professed "good government" type and you find a big government type. And what exactly is wrong with enlightened self interest? Anyone who professes to be sacrificing himself on the altar of The Greater Good is usually really interested in sacrificing *me* and other productive people on that altar instead. Government is not the greatest achievement of mankind on earth - it is a utility that should be employed only to do those essential tasks that people do not spontaneously organize to perform in the form of businesses. Propagating a bushi clerical class will only suck vitality out of our society and replace it with the least trustworthy type of government paper pusher - the man with no declared objective save to "help" his fellow citizens.
Posted Thu, Dec 27, 2:05 p.m. inappropriate
Well: I certainly could see how the scenario of D. Brennan could come to play - with those in power that outcome is also a fairly safe bet.
However done right it might well be the ONLY solution to the mess we find ourselves in now. Much of what we pay for now could be accomplished by educated lay people working informally - certainly though NOT as part of a bureaucracy of volunteers.
Bring some more adults with experience actually living in the world into the UW might be a very, very good thing. More on that later.
Kind of a randon thing, but I met the one guy in the federal government responsible for public service stuff at a conference on Lake Geneva in maybe 83 or 84. It wasn't a subject of particular interest to me, but he was a good salesman and I remember our chat as being both informative and engaging.
FWIW I think mandatory public service EITHER military or civil for a short period 6 mos - year for ALL 18 year olds would be a good thing - or perhaps at least as a requirement for any college funding or loan.
Lastly, keep Dan Evans out of it. We don't need anymore him producing any more Ted Bundy's (do you know the details of that 'story'?) or for that matter the not totally disimilar types of graduates we've apparently been getting from the 'Dan Evans School of Public Affairs' where they teach the 'subject' in their own way.
Heaven forbid a business type would choose that program over an MBA - the clash would most likely be quite spectacular.
-Douglas T.