Among the many bills before Congress as members return this week after their summer break is legislation that would create a national service academy, an idea put forth by two former Teach for America instructors.
Chris Myers Asch, one of the two men behind the push, said his goal is to create a 5,000-student school modeled after West Point Academy, only for civilians.
Recommended Stories
The idea came to Asch as he witnessed Hurricane Katrina and the devastation it brought to Mississippi, where he had been working for an agency aiding inner-city children.
“What Katrina showed me was a tremendous breakdown in civilian leadership,” said Asch, the son of a foreign-service worker and civilian Army doctor. “In Mississippi, they kept calling for the military to come in, saying ‘It’s not their jobs, but they’ll know what to do.’”
Asch said the academy would, like its military equivalents, have a congressional nomination process and eventually have competitive entrance requirements.
Once enrolled, students would get a free education through private-public partnerships. Academic requirements would include mastering a foreign language and studying abroad. After graduation, they’d be required to serve for five years in their area of expertise.
“So someone might be sent to a veterans clinic in Montana, or a local police unit might need helping recruiting officers, or they might be at border control … wherever there are critical needs,” Asch said. “The intensity, the focus on service — none of that exists right now, and we think it’s a niche we can fill.”
Ideally, the academy would be housed in the nation’s capital, supporters of the plan said, suggesting the site of the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital as one option. Yet organizers are open to other locales.
Now at work on the project for 18 months, Asch has garnered support from a growing number of representatives and senators, including presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
There’s also an elaborate Internet campaign at work, with Facebook.com and MySpace.com pages, and an online petition. And Time magazine, in its latest issue, named the service academy as one of the 10 things the country’s next president should do.
“We just can’t believe how this has taken off,” he said.
