SOMEONE suggested the concept of a “Public Service Academy” Hmmm… although it sounds ‘innocent’ enough, I found one quote unsettling:
“I think just like our military academies, we need to give a totally all-paid education to young men and women who will serve their country in a public service position.”
What is of concern is something about a national academy for the training of all those entering Public Service. By te way, what do they mean by ‘public service’?…. & why do we need this, again? I suspect we are not talking just about Americorp or the Peace Corp… but developing ‘leaders’ for local, state and government office … and activists? Kinda like someone wants a ‘farm team’.
In politics today, many political leaders start off on the bottom rungs by volunteering for committees attached to some local political entity… a city or county. Often, many are asked to participate by local political groups, which is neither all that sinister or surprising. Although this is not necessarily a great system to help develop our future leaders, I am suspicious of making the process too streamlined and too easily manipulated & abused.
Roger Freberg
PS. By the way, don’t be fooled, this idea has been around before….