As the state of Florida and America move past the presidential election in November, beyond an ailing economy on the brink of a recession and headlong into the future, the country lies on the cusp of a crisis garnering little attention.
According to the Partnership for Public Service, more than 90 percent of America's leadership in the public sector becomes eligible to retire within the next decade. Eight in 10 police departments nationwide cannot fill their ranks, and the State Department has a critical and potentially catastrophic shortage of linguists and translators in languages such as Pashto and Arabic.
All of this adds up to a decidedly unfavorable calculus for the future of America's public service sector. So the question becomes: What should America do to safeguard against a dangerous shortage of qualified public servants to keep our government providing all necessary services?
Currently pending before the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are twin bills that promise to help alleviate the problem. While not a panacea for our public service crisis, the U.S. Public Service Academy Act promises to help funnel more qualified young people into the public service sector.
Originally introduced into the Senate by Sens. Hillary Clinton and Arlen Specter and into the House by Reps. James Moran and Christopher Shays, the act would create a U.S. Public Service Academy in the mold of the U.S. Military Academies.
Each year approximately 1,300 students would enter the academy based on nominations by their local congressional representative. Serving a total of 5,100 young Americans, the academy would offer a fully subsidized education to students in return for a requirement that graduates serve at least five years in some sector of public service.
There are several arguments for why building the academy and building it now are of utmost importance.
Time Magazine recently published an editorial declaring that now is the time to move public service forward and highlighting the establishment of the academy as one of the ways the next president could elicit a return to civil service. Time noted that volunteerism (not to be confused with public service) is at an all-time high, and the time is ripe to transform this strong volunteer ethic into an everlasting American trademark. Combined with the coming deficit in public servants, this makes a compelling argument for the establishment of the academy.
Despite the persuasive case for creating the academy, many believe there is a better alternative: instituting this program at universities across the nation.
This alternative would be prone to politicization, however, as states would jockey to secure federal funding for the programs, ensuring that students in some states receive more opportunities than others. In addition, forcing a mandate onto the states ignores the symbolic importance of the academy in forwarding the message that America wants its young people to be able to serve their country.
Taking the lead, three members of Florida's congressional delegation, Reps. Corrine Brown, Ron Klein and Alcee Hastings have cosponsored the bill. Mark Rosenberg, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, Thomas Wetherell, president of Florida State University, and the Florida Student Association have all joined suit. It is now time for UF, President Bernie Machen and Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan to join the movement.
Kyle Robisch is an economics and public leadership sophomore at UF. He lives in Overland Park, Kan., where serves as the chairman of the Kansas Youth Advisory Council to the U.S. Public Service Academy and is Kansas' representative on the National Youth Advisory Council to the U.S. Public Service Academy.
