Pushing National Service

This just in from Time magazine:

Polls show that while confidence in our democracy and our government is near an all-time low, volunteerism and civic participation since the '70s are near all-time highs. Political scientists are perplexed about this. If confidence is so low, why would people bother volunteering? The explanation is pretty simple. People, especially young people, think the government and the public sphere are broken, but they feel they can personally make a difference through community service. After 9/11, Americans were hungry to be asked to do something, to make some kind of sacrifice, and what they mostly remember is being asked to go shopping. The reason private volunteerism is so high is precisely that confidence in our public institutions is so low. People see volunteering not as a form of public service but as an antidote for it.

Time's solution is a proposal for a universal national service program. It would include the following elements: creating a Cabinet-level National Service Department; expanding programs like AmeriCorps and the National Senior Volunteer Corps; creating separate Education, Health, Green and Rapid-Response Reserve Corps; and implementing the proposal to create a Public Service Academy.

That latter effort is drawing increasing support on Capitol Hill, but is somewhat less popular in other quarters.